For Every Soul
by SamJaz
Summary: We start by breaking past the Impossible, because Epic wasn't good enough. We're Raising the Bar. Sequel to P3: Fairly English Story and Casey W's P4: Face Every Shadow.
1. Veritas De Sköll

Hey everyone, here's the first chapter of the sequel, as promised. Story date is Tuesday, April 15, 2014. This day happens to be a full moon, but that will have no significance in this story at all. Nope, none whatsoever.

And while I'm here, I'll answer some reviews from the Epiclogue. Just as a heads up to new readers, if you haven't read Fairly English Story, turn back now and read it or this story will ruin that forever.

So, last warning.

**SPOILERS**

**TURN BACK**

**SPOILERS**

**READ FAIRLY ENGLISH STORY**

**SPOILERS**

**IT WILL TAKE YOU A WHILE, BUT THIS STORY WILL MAKE SO MUCH MORE SENSE IF YOU DO**

Alright, that should do it. If you keep reading now and you haven't read Fairly English Story yet and that story gets spoiled, it's all your own fault.

Crazy Tiger, once this is up I will indeed be focusing on Time Paradox.

Slicerness, the only Megami Tensei game I have played is Persona 3 and FES. And this sequel will have stuff to do with P4, just wait and see.

Greifen, Minatos only has just enough spiritual power per fight to beat whoever he's fighting, something Minato does to keep him under control. Minatos then decides to use less SP per fight than what Minato thinks he'll need, just to prove him wrong. The only reason that Izanami was such a Curb Stomp is because Minato had a bone to pick with her and he wanted to make an example of her. Curb Stomps will be rare in the sequel.  
The deal with Izanami, in mythology, is that she kills a thousand each day in order to piss off Izanagi. I doubt she really did have humanity's best interests at heart.  
And I only intended it to end at 108 once I reached 106. I honestly would have liked to end it on 111, but hey, 108 is also an epic number.

Dark Side Of The World, I'm comparable to Charles Bhepin, who has done one Seriously epic and detailed story. I will, however, take that title as God Emperor of Shin Megami Tensei Fanfiction with pride, since Bhepin writes an Evangelion Fanfiction.

Vect the Atoner, I did read that, ages ago, but I prefer my interpretation of Minato. And thanks for that detailed review, I agree with what you said.

Viperzero, you feeling sad because the story ended, or because it didn't end well? And yes, I know they're from the Philippines', hence why they were against each other.

Feith, I'm going to do a bunch of short stories around Persona 4 alongside Time Paradox now. You'll enjoy them.

* * *

**-} 0 {-**

* * *

Daisuke Nagase leaned on the bar. "Maaan…" He groaned. "How long is Kou gonna spend at that match-up meeting?"

The barman cleaning his glass laughed. "You know, if you didn't leave your key in the apartment then you could be home right now."

Daisuke laughed. "What, and miss out on free drinks?"

The barman sighed. "Hey, I only work here." He told his customer. "I'm limited to giving one free drink a night."

"Come on Seta, man!" Daisuke begged. "Remember how I always had your back in the football team?"

"I was the quarterback, you were the linebacker." Seta reminded Daisuke. "We were rarely on the field at the same time, and you're starting to sound like Yosuke, you know that?"

"He was a decent linesman." Daisuke nodded. "And Kou with our running back…" He laughed. "Man, if you hadn't transferred out, we'd have been unbeatable in our third year."

Seta laughed. "Come on, Kondo only learnt the rules the year before I transferred in, and we never showed up for practice."

"You mean _you _never showed up for practice." Daisuke corrected him, then looking down the bar. "Whoa…" He gasped.

"Hm? What?" Seta asked, following his gaze.

"That's Wolf…" Daisuke told his friend in hushed tones. "Michael Van Wijk…"

"Who's he?" Seta asked.

"Dude, from Gladiators!" Daisuke hissed. "You know, 'The Big Bad Wolf'?"

"Not ringing any bells." Seta sighed before walking over to the other customer. "May I take your order sir?" He asked him.

* * *

**-} I {-**

* * *

_\_ "And with that home run, Junpei Iori has brought the score up to seventeen to sixteen for the Tatsumi Tiger's" _\_ Declared the baseball commentator.

_\_ "That's right Yoshii-kun, but with Miyamoto out it's the Sumaru Shark's turn to bat, with Akihisa Akuro to bat first!" _\_ His partner commented. _\_ "Akuro is one hell of a better, and you can see how he earned his name, and with Tiger pitcher Toriumi having thrown for eight innings already, it's all over for the Tiger's." _\_

_\_ "Hold onto that, Ikari-san, because the Tiger's have announced a pitcher change for the last inning!" _\_ Yoshii told him, reading from his monitor. _\_ "Junpei Iori is set to pitch the last inning!" _\_

_\_ "Whoa, isn't that a risky move?" _\_ Ikari asked. _\_ "We have no records of Iori pitching this season or in any previous professional games, so he really is a dark horse here." _\_

Junpei smirked under his cap as he stood on the pitchers mound. They had no fricken idea. Of what was about to happen.

He wound up his pitch, and threw.

"Ball!"

Junpei ignored the commentators criticism as he caught the ball the catcher tossed him, then took a deep breath and pitched the ball.

"STRIKE!"

He grinned and caught the ball as it was thrown back to him. "Come on…" Junpei chuckled under his breath before pitching again.

Akihisa swung the bat and it connected with the ball.

"BALL TWO!" The umpire declared, and Junpei let out a sigh of relief. "Man…" He moaned, before winding up and pitching again.

The ball was out, but since Akihisa swung for it, "STRIKE TWO, BALL TWO!"

Junpei laughed and caught the ball as he glanced at the coach.

Thumbs up.

Junpei grinned, then took a step back with a big grin, before lunging forward, stamping the ground and launching the ball with all his might.

"BALL THREE!"

The ball was still spinning against the wire fence behind the batting zone. The catcher stood up and pushed it down to the dirt before picking it up and tossing it back to Junpei.

Akihisa tensed, staring right at Junpei.

Junpei looked right back at his opponent. "Heh." He laughed, before stepping back again and winding up his pitch.

He then stepped forward, making sure not to release the ball until the perfect second and the ball flew right through the score zone just as Akihisa swung.

The bat hit the ball.

The bat stopped.

The ball spun against the bat.

The bat splintered.

The catcher dived out of the way as the ball burst through the wooden bat and bounced harmlessly against the fence behind him.

Junpei lifted his glove and caught the lump of wood flying towards his face.

"S-STRIKE THREE!!" The umpire declared in shock as fans on both sides of the arena cheered. "YOU'RE OUT!"

* * *

**-} II {-**

* * *

Fuuka poured herself a mug of coffee and pounded her head against the wall. "Why, why, why oh why oh why…" She groaned.

"Um… doctor Yamagishi?"

Fuuka stood bolt upright. "Yes!" She shouted, then remembered herself. "Yes, what is it?"

"Um… Here's the test results for the prototype you asked for…"

Fuuka bowed. "Thank you very much." She told her fellow scientist, taking the folder from him and looking through it while drinking her elixir of life.

The results were, as Aigis might have put it, Not Good.

Fuuka sighed and dumped the folder atop the small pile of children's books in the middle of the table and groaned. The theory behind the hyper-antennae was sound. The numbers matched up, and it worked in practice. For about thirty seconds, then it burst into flames. Or split in half. Or oxidised. Or even just gave a great big middle finger to the laws of known physics said "U NO CAN HAZ, LOLZ!!!!1"

Fuuka put her mug on the table and got thinking. They'd tried the voltage, insulation, running it through at different temperatures, what hadn't they changed..?"

"Um, excuse me…"

Fuuka looked up to see a young woman with black hair and a red sweater. "Um, your coffee's on my report about the three little pigs…"

She glanced down at the table and immediately removed the mug. "I'm so sorry, I…"

"It's fine." The young woman replied, sitting down. "I'm only making notes right now."

Fuuka let out a sigh of relief. Even after being in this university long enough to earn her degree, she still kept forgetting that she shared a kitchen with the library.

Wait.

"Um… why are you doing a report on the three little pigs?" Fuuka asked.

"Oh, I'm studying literature." The student replied with a smile. "It's, well…" She sighed. "To be honest, I only came to college so I wouldn't have to inherit the family business right away."

"Oh!" Fuuka gasped. "Um…"

"It's, not that I don't want to take over the inn!" The young student protested hurriedly while blushing. "It's just that I wanted to get an education first!" She said.

Fuuka giggled slightly, and the student laughed at herself.

"I'm Fuuka Yamagishi." Fuuka introduced, feeling a lot more comfortable after a good laugh.

"Yukiko Amagi." The student introduced. "It's nice to meet you."

* * *

**-} III {-**

* * *

Mitsuru walked down the hallway, reading through the latest portfolio her assistant had given her on the way. "So explain to me why I have a marriage meeting today when I could be doing something else?" She asked.

"Ms. Kirijo, please understand." The suit behind her pleaded. "We understand your devotion to the company and your absolutely perfect in leading the group, but we are concerned for your personal life!"

Mitsuru sighed. "Very well Fujita." She said. "I will give Ichijo ten minutes of my time at least."

"Thank you very much Ms. Kirijo." Her other aide, Hiruma told her, bowing, then jogging forward and opening the door for her. "This way please."

Mitsuru stepped into the room and saw her fiancée-candidate kneeling at the table in a Yukata. "It's nice to meet you." He said with a smile. "I am Kou Ichijo… are you alright?"

Mitsuru turned around. "I'm sorry." She told her. "Please forgive my rudeness."

"Ah-hey!" Kou called, standing up as Mitsuru bolted from the room.

Hiruma turned to Fujita. "You knew what he looked like before coming here, didn't you?" He asked his companion.

"Well, yes!" Fujita answered. "But I don't unders-OW!"

"I apologise again for Ms. Kirijo." Hiruma told Kou and his family while bowing as Fujita rubbed the back of his head. "Your appearance is strikingly similar to a late friend of Ms. Kirijo."

"Oh, I see…" Kou said, scratching the back of his head bashfully. "I'm, sorry to hear that…"

"We apologise for wasting your time." Hiruma continued. "Please excuse us."

He grabbed Fujita by the back of the neck and dragged him out of the room. "Hey, wait!" Fujita protested.

"We need to find Ms Kirijo and when we do, you will hand in your resignation immediately." Hiruma told him. "You were briefed on the lady's relationship the late Arisoto, so you have no excuse."

"I- I thought that she liked guys who looked like that!" Fujita told his co-worker, escaping from his grip. "How was I to know she'd react like that!?"

Hiruma glared at him. "Again." He said. "You had been briefed."

* * *

**-} IV {-**

* * *

Kanji wiped the towel through his now brown hair and looked at the piercings left by the sink. His mother wasn't well, and if he was to look after the shop, then he'd have to do more to convince the town that he wasn't going to kick the living daylights out of them.

Oh, no-one thought he was a criminal anymore, but a guy with bleached back hair and metal in his face does tend to intimidate the… more refined folk of Inaba.

Kanji brushed his hair in front of his face. "Heh, not bad Kanji." He told his reflection. "Ya look kinda like senpai…"

He shook his head, grabbing the sink. "Man… since when did I start talking to myself?" He asked himself. "Well, I'm sure it's fine as long as I don't answer myself…" He rethought this. "Well, It's fine until I ask myself to repeat whatever the hell I just said…"

Kanji grabbed his forehead and rubbed his face into his palm. "Man I am such an idiot…" He groaned, before stepping back from the mirror and heading downstairs to open up shop.

* * *

"Hey there Nanako-chan!" Kanji shouted with surprise as he unlocked the front door. "Come in!"

"Um…" Nanako stepped hesitantly into the shop. "Are… you Kanji-kun's boyfriend?"

Kanji flipped back to the eight-year old girl in rage. "WHADDYA SAY!?" He bellowed. "YOU SAYIN' I LIKE DUDES!? HUH!?"

Nanako giggled. "Oh, I didn't recognise you." She said. "What happened to your face?" She asked. "Your hair's changed too…"

"Eh, just felt like a change." Kanji lied, posing with a grin. "Whaddya think?" He asked. "Think I look kinda like your big bro?"

Nanako shook her head. "I liked how you looked before." She said. "You don't look like Kanji-kun anymore…"

Kanji almost stepped back, then chuckled. "Sorry about that Nanako-chan…" He apologised, squatting down to rustle her hair. "Tell ya what, how's about I give you a doll to take to school?" He offered up.

Nanako immediately brightened up. "I want that one!" She declared, running up to one doll. "The big bad wolf!"

"Oh yeah, I gave you Red Riding Hood a while ago, didn't I…" He told her, then reached for it and handed it to her. "Here ya go."

"Thanks Kanji-kun!" Nanako cheered, grabbing his neck and hugging him before stuffing the doll into her school bag and running for the door. "Bye!!"

Kanji waved her off as she ran down the street, then sighed.

Maybe a couple up his ears would be fine?

* * *

**-} V {-**

* * *

Shinji hummed as he stirred the noodles in the pan. He gratefully took the money Minato had left him, using it to start a restaurant in the hub of the Iwatodai city. Since then, he'd built it up to the only five-star restaurant in Japan that didn't charge an arm and a leg for half a fish in some garlic.

"Morning…" Marina yawned, trudging down the stairs into the kitchen.

"You sleep in again?" Shinji asked her. "It's ten past eleven.

"Ah, it's okay…" She mumbled, sidling over to Shinji and snuggling up to him as he cooked. "It's not like I have any classes on Monday Mornings…"

"It's Tuesday." Shinji told her with a sigh.

Marina's eyes blasted open. "Shit." She swore, bolting back upstairs to their apartment.

Shinji laughed and got back to cooking for the lunchtime rush. People were already cueing outside the restaurant, even though he wouldn't be opening for another twenty minutes.

The kitchen door opened and Naoki Kashima ran in. "Sorry I'm late." He gasped.

"Tch." Shinji grunted, passing him an apron. "Get those bowls heated up before Kuroda gets here."

"Yes sir!" Naoki replied, getting to work.

Shinji pondered for a moment, then asked a question. "Hey, aren't you a thousand year old half-demon?" Shinji asked.

"Try not to tell everyone, I quite like the life I have here." Naoki replied.

"That's just it." Shinji pointed out. "Why isn't a guy like you lording it up over the demons of hell or something?"

"Why don't you have the trophy for 'Worlds Strongest Man' hung up on the wall?" Naoki asked.

"Tch."

"Alright, I'm off!" Marina shouted, running down the stairs and out the door. "Bye and you might wanna scrub that graffiti off!"

Shinji glanced out the window, and some English words were painted on his wall. "Great…" He groaned, then lifting an arm up.

Stone crawled up the wall, covering the letters completely.

* * *

**-} VI {-**

* * *

"Alright boys and girls, Wantabe-san here is complaining of abdominal pains, nausea, diarrhoea, fever and weight loss," Doctor Koksu told the interns, "Your diagnosis is _What_, doctor… Hiraga?"

"My suspicion would be ulcerative colitis sir." Keisuke answered. "I would recommend a colonoscopy to confirm the diagnosis… sir?" Keisuke asked as doctor Koksu clapped with glee.

"Beautiful Chihiro, just beautiful." Koksu happily told Keisuke as he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. "But if you'd been looking at _the patient_ instead of _at me_, then you'd have noticed that Wantabe-san has no fever, and is, as a matter of fact, in no real need to be here."

"Sir?" Keisuke asked, confused.

"You see," Koksu continued, walking over to the bed-ridden patient and hugging him over the shoulder. "Wantabe here is the Tatsumi Memorial Hospital's resident hypochondriac." He explained, shaking the patient as he mocked his students. "He just has diarrhoea but has worked it up to the very thing you just diagnosed in his head, as he was very quick to tell me as he was admitted, last night." Koksu stepped back from the patient. "You're all doctors now, so stop accepting what people tell you as truth because nine time out of ten, they are _lying_!" The head doctor hissed, making sure he got his point across.

"Sir, that wasn't fair."

Everyone turned to doctor Takeba, who was furious. "We're only residents, we expect you to teach us, not for us to know all the answers."

"Well, that's just peachy and wonderful Barbie!" Koksu replied with a wide smile. "But while you monkeys are still flinging your own crap at each other, people are sick and dying and frankly, when they look at either of us, all they see are magic medicine machines that wave their magic stethoscopes and make the problem just, go away…" Koksu said, fluttering his hand into the air. "Poof!"

…

"Doctor Koksu-" Yukari began.

"Problems, gone forever…" Koksu continued whistfully, before shaking his head and turning back to face his student. "But here's the kicker, little lady, so pull those hair-pins out of your ears and listen up." He told her with a glare. "These idiots see the scrubs and the stethoscope and they automatically think that since you somehow managed to get through med school that you're smart enough to fix all their problems like Black Jack, when the reality is that you lot are such newbie's that it's a wonder that any of you can tell the difference between an appendix and an asshole and by hell you are getting pissed girlie."

Yukari held her tongue.

"Atta girl." Koksu winked. "Because for as long as these patients think you're halfway near competent, you need to act like you are, so before you accuse me of acting like, oh I don't know… some kind of bad wolf, stop expecting us to ease you into it and get back to not killing someone today." Koksu whistled and clapped and the residents all dispersed, leaving Yukari and Keisuke as Koksu walked away.

"So, um… thanks Yukari-san." Keisuke laughed. "I owe you one!"

Yukari shook her head, fist shaking. "No… he's right. We became doctors to help people."

Keisuke stepped back as Yukari lifted her head and smiled. "Come on, back to work." She told him, heading off down the corridor.

* * *

**-} VII {-**

* * *

"Er, hey, um… Aigis-san…"

Aigis looked from the file she was reading. "Hamasaki-san." She nodded. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Um, I was wondering if you'd… you know…" Aigis tilted her head at the awkward man. "Like to… go for a drink… later?" Hamasaki asked hopefully.

Aigis turned back to the document she was studying. "Sorry." She replied. "I have business to attend to."

"Oh, I see…" Hamasaki sighed. "So, what're you reading?"

"I am studying the Mal Loup case of nineteen-seventy-three." Aigis answered. "The circumstances are similar to that of the defendant in my clients trial tomorrow."

"Oh, I see." Hamasaki chuckled. "So I guess going out tonight would be a bad idea for you anyways, huh?"

"Is there something else I can help you with Hamasaki-san?" Aigis asked.

"No, that's fine." He replied, heading back to his desk. "I'll take you out for a drink to celebrate your victory later, okay!"

Aigis sighed, then got back to studying the court notes.

Her eyes widened and she looked at her hand, which had turned white with gunmetal fingertips. Aigis closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, and when she opened them, her hand was pink and inkstained again.

Aigis stood up with a sigh and packed up her notes into her briefcase, and pulled out her phone once she was out of the office and hit a number from her speed dail.

"Shinjiro-san?" She asked once the phone picked up. "Are there any empty tables at Polydeuces?"

_\_ "Nah, but I can empty one for ya if you're coming over." _\_ Shinji offered.

"No, that is alright." Aigis told him with a smile as she unlocked her car. "I will come in through the back."

_\_ "Right, I'll prepare the usual." _\_ Shinji told her. _\_ "It'll be ten minutes, that okay?" _\_

"That is fine." Aigis replied, pulling on her seatbelt and starting the car. "I'm on my way."

* * *

**-} VIII {-**

* * *

WHAM

Daiki flew for a good four feet before landing in the dirt after being punched in the face. "Get up." The Armada told him. "I'm not finished with you yet."

Daiki forced himself onto his elbows and wiped his bloody lip. "Damn Kenjamin, what the hell is-"

He got cut off by a kick to the jaw, sending him into the air as his opponent brutally pummelled his body on the way down before spinning into a kick, launching him into a wall.

"You don't get to call me that." Kenjamin told the battered Daiki as he forced himself up. "That name is for friends, not perverts."

"So I stole a few panties, what's your problem?" Daiki grunted. "Look, I'm sorry I pissed you off man, but chill the fu-"

Daiki coughed up blood as The Armada rammed his fist into his stomach. Kenjamin pulled his fist back and Daiki collapsed to the floor.

"Damn, out that fast?" He asked the unconscious schoolboy, then squatted down and cast a Recarm on him.

Daiki span around and scrambled to his feet and legged it, but tripped when an electric shock ran up his leg, paralysing it.

"Now, I'll give you a choice." Kenjamin warned, walking over to his helpless prisoner. "Either I continue beating the shit out of you until I feel satisfied, or you go and publicly grovel at the feet of every single girl in the swimming club individually with an atomic wedgie and your trousers by your ankles."

Daiki grunted and forced himself onto his one good leg. He'd seen plenty of people in that same situation, and now this explains why. At this point, humiliation seemed much better than an ass whoopin'.

"Just keep it above the belt and try not to bruise the face." Daiki requested. "Other than that, just leave me able to walk home."

Kenjamin was surprised. "You know, most people choose the grovelling." He said. "You're the first to ask for me to keep going."

Daiki's eyes brightened with the slim prospect of getting out of his punishment, which was killed mercilessly as Kenjamin rammed a knee into his ribcage.

* * *

Daiki got revived and healed five times that afternoon before Kenjamin left him on the ground with a few broken ribs.

"So, did you find who did it Kenjamin-kun?"

Kenjamin turned to face Akane Kobayashi, a pretty cute brunette girl from the swimming club. "Sorry!" Kenjamin lied. "I couldn't find anyone."

"Ehh?" Akane asked in surprise. "But normally you find them in minutes!"

"This one got away." Kenjamin apologised. "But I don't think he'll do it again."

"I hope so…" Akane sighed, holding herself defensively.

"But hey, I managed to find the panties!" Kenjamin reported, holding the gym bag of underwear. "Here."

Akane took it bashfully. "Um, thanks!" She laughed. "Shame you couldn't find the perverted wolf who stole them."

"Next time!" Kenjamin promised, then caught a glance at the school clock. "Crap! I gotta get home!" He shouted, legging it towards the gate. "Later."

* * *

**-} IX {-**

* * *

Fox growled at the grey wolf outside her shrine, her full-fledged cubs behind her backing her with their families.

There was no doubt as to who would come out on top of this fight.

But the wolf had to eat, and Fox was old, reaching the end of its lifespan.

"YIPYIP!" Fox barked, summing her Persona, Inari. The smoky woman burst from the sky and launched the wolf back with an Akasha Arts.

The wolf yelped in pain, getting to its paws while bleeding badly, then howled, bursting into black flames.

Fox leapt back, as did her children, as the flames settled into the shape of an enormous hound, around the size of a horse.

The black flame-beast opened its eyes, revealing them to be demonic red. Its fangs dripped black with Ichor, and as it stepped forward, red flames marked its paw prints on the stone slabs of the shrine.

"**Arrrgghh…**" The beast growled as the flames turned into something solid, and all the foxes behind Fox fled in terror.

Fox braced herself, shook away her fear of the demonic wolf, and pounced for the beast.

The wolf back-handed Fox, tossing her powerfully against a pillar. Fox yelped in pain as she landed, her spine cracked against the pillar as the wolf approached her, shedding its huge frame as it neared her.

Fox tried to summon her Persona, but she was rapidly losing blood and consciousnesses.

The last thing she felt was the wolf tearing out her jugular, feasting upon her dying body.

* * *

**-} X {-**

* * *

Naoto Shirogane sighed at her laptop, rubbing her forehead. This guy she was chasing was like an absolute ghost.

He came out of nowhere four years ago, and since then he's been seen all over the world. So far there's been no pattern to where he's been or who he's talked to, but he's been trading huge numbers of children with mobsters in Thailand and all over Africa, he's kidnapped several women only to dump them back at their house once enough policemen started chasing him, or even kidnap children in their own homes and force the child's parents to prove their love to them, usually by making the father shoot an empty gun into his own head.

She'd been working on the Cipher case since shortly after the Izanami case. The target, codenamed Cipher, killed Isamu Minami, the superintendent of the Okinawa police department, in a Tokyo hotel on May 19th, 2012, and almost two years later she's no closer to working out just who the hell his Cipher is.

The last sighting recorded on Interpol was at Dårlig Ulv Stranden in Norway, and that was three weeks ago. He could be anywhere by now doing anything.

Killing anyone. This Cipher was also attributing to assassinating a president of Nigeria years ago and slaughtering several child traffickers all over the world…

"Is that the pattern?" Naoto asked, opening up the Interpol file on Isamu Minami.

Aged sixty-three. Arrested once when he was fifteen for underage drinking, something he never denied. Lived with his wife, had one son who is a lifeguard, married with a child on the way.

She then checked the Japanese government records on his death.

Isamu's personal laptop were found to hold pornographic images of teenage schoolgirls. One video showed one girl tied up in a room as she was stripped and raped-

Almost raped.

The Cipher showed up on the video and gabbed the masked rapist by the head and ram him into a wall. He then untied the girl and handed her his jacket and gave her some money before sending her away. He then moved his face into the camera.

_\_ _"Man, if this was saved onto your laptop, then this would be really, really incriminating mister Isamu."_ _\_

The masked man then drew a gun which the Cipher flipped out of his hand, then dragged him to the camera. _\_ _"Take a good look everyone"_ _\_ The Cipher declared, unmasking the almost-rapist. _\_ _"This is what your beloved mister Minami is like behind closed doors!_" _\_

He then grabbed the unmasked rapist and shoved him onto the bed. _\_ _"Oh, I'm sure you guy's will cover this up to protect his honour, despite the fact that he clearly has none, but hey, at least you all know what really happened._" _\_ The Cipher told the camera as he pulled out a gun and pointed it at the politician, who was begging for his life.

_\_ _**BLAM**__\_

Naoto barely flinched as blood splattered over the screen and the recording ended.

This wasn't in the initial report given to her by Interpol. In fact, this wasn't on Interpol at all.

The Japanese Special Police had covered this up, just as the Cipher predicted.

This one piece of evidence that she almost missed changed everything.

The families involved in Cipher's hostage situations became much closer afterwards. The politicians assassinated were corrupt, politically or as human beings.

Orphanages had been built in the places where Cipher gave children en masse to mobsters, after he had killed several other suspected paedophiles.

This Cipher leaves destruction in his wake, but overall, the outcome is… good?

Naoto had a hunch, and she investigated it.

She filtered through the list of suicides of the year 2013, ignoring the 'suspected' suicides, and compared them with those of 2009.

There was a 97% decrease. Suspected suicides could easily be well-covered murders, but even then the world suicide rate is amazingly low compared to the past hundred years.

All since that Cipher turned up.

What the hell?

* * *

**-} XI {-**

* * *

Koromaru lazed by the radiator as Marina ran into the room. "Hey there Koro!" She announced, dive-bombing the couch with a sigh. "Man… why did I have to wake up late again..?"

"Probably because you stayed up watching TV all night." Kenjamin pointed out, changing the channel.

"They were showing Doctor Who with Japanese dubbing!" Marina protested angrily. "They got Mamoru Miyano playing Christopher Eccelston! No way in hell I was missing the Doctor with Ling Yao's voice!"

Kenjamin sighed. "And that's why you got held back a year on your architecting course…" He told her. "I know you like anime, but there's more to life than cartoons."

"You love Phoenix Featherman Ranger R!" Marina pointed out defensively.

"I'm not saying it's not wrong to enjoy it occasionally." Kenjamin pointed out. "It's just that you have a tendency to take it a bit too far."

Marina scowled. "Shouldn't you be downstairs helping Shinji in the kitchen?" She muttered in response.

"Why don't you?" Kenjamin asked her. "You're his girlfriend."

"And you're practically his brother." Marina countered, tossing a cushion at him. "So you should help him!"

"I'm doing fine without either of you." Shinji told them, poking his head through the door. "Though if you could both watch the kitchen while I take a piss, that'd be great."

Marina summoned a card into her hand. "Nata Taishi!" She shouted, crushing the card and casting Sukukaja on herself then sprinting down the stairs.

"H-Hey!" Ken shouted, hopping onto his feet and running after her. "That's cheating!"

"Bite me!" Marina laughed from the bottom of the stairs.

Koromaru yawned and bit the remote, carrying it from the couch and dropping it onto the rug and pressing his paw on it, changing the channel to another Doctor Who re-run.

_\_ "_Blaidd Drwg_" _\_ The Doctor said on the TV screen.

_\_ "What's it means?" _\_ Rose asked him.

_\_ "Bad Wolf." _\_ The Doctor replied gravely.

_\_ "But, I've heard that before, Bad Wolf." _\_ Rose replied with concern. _\_ "I've heard that lots of times…" _\_

_\_ "Everywhere we go, two words following us. Bad Wolf." _\_ The Doctor explained.

_\_ "How could they be following us?" _\_ Rose asked.

_\_ "Nah." _\_ The Doctor said. _\_ "Just a coincidence!" _\_

Koromaru yawned, then changed the channel again, settling on one showing Lassie.

* * *

**-} XII {-**

* * *

Chidori stepped into the bathroom to catch her breath. She was happy for her fiancée's win, of course she was, it's just that she needed a break from the celebration party that was still going on strong after six hours.

She sat on the toilet stall and sighed. Ever since she woke up in hospital four years ago, Junpei had always been there for her. He'd given her everything she'd ever wanted, and she loved him almost as much as he loved her.

It's just… there was still a huge blank in her memories. She couldn't remember anything precise before she woke up, like holding onto the fragments of a dream, but all she knew was that it was filled with emptiness, pain, and towards the end, happiness.

She had no doubt that Junpei was the man who had brought her that happiness, but there was still a pain in her heart, one that she could never tell him about. A yearning for the world lost in her forgotten memories.

She clutched at her head and groaned. She'd barely had two drinks and she felt like she had a raging hangover.

No, it's somewhat different to a hangover.

A pounding headache.

Two sounds, drumming in her head, one after the other.

Over and over again.

And it wasn't stopping.

These sounds had meaning. They were _Important._

"…Bad…" Chidori said aloud. "…Wolf…"

But what could they mean?

* * *

**-} XIII {-**

* * *

I rammed the wolfman into the wall and smashed his face in, but he snarled and bit down on my hand, hard.

He ripped it from my wrist and pushed me back across the alley and leapt for me again, but I slammed my other hand into the floor and launched a cluster of spikes into his chest,

The wolf howled in hate and pain, then froze the tarmac spikes, and shattering them as I pointed a Bolter at his skull.

"The new Vengeance rounds." I told him as my other hand regenerated. "They're no silver bullets, but they'll do the job just fine."

The demon snarled and pushed the gun aside.

I stepped forward and rammed my fist through his jaw and punched through the back of his neck and brought the Bolter to his back.

"Bad wolf." I told him, pulling my arm out and firing.

**DAKKA**

Black energy surrounded the demon as it howled in pain, then the screams were silenced as the energy consumed it.

I sighed and put the Bolter away, then stepped back into the streets of Hamburg.

**Böser Wolf**

And there's another poster of that band. They're getting popular lately.

Let's see, where next…

Hamburg does not have a street called Bad Wolf.

I turned and looked at the chocolate shop behind me. Bad Wolf chocolates…

I stepped back into the alley and looked at the walls. Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf…

Alright, Skynet, what the hell is going on…

It's everywhere.

It's following S.E.E.S..

The only one without it is…

* * *

I pushed the gate to the Kirijo estate open and stormed in. Unlike the vacation home in Yakushima, this was a traditional building, bordering on a palace, covering land of half a square mile.

"GET YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AND TURN AROUND SLOWLY!"

I ignored Hiruma's ordered and kept marching as he fired once at my leg, but I stepped aside at the last second, the bullet passing harmlessly by.

I then started running in a zig-zag as he began firing rapidly, leaping off a tree and onto the roof as he sounded the alarm.

I ran along the roof as security poured out of the roof and began shooting, but it was easy to predict where the bullets would pass through, so dodging them was child's play for me.

I twisted around the corner and hopped up onto the second rooftop, and ran along that before jumping down to the inner garden. A security guard called Saori tried to tackle me, but I back-handed him and ran to the master bedroom and tore the wall aside.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!!"

"Hey Mitsuru." I told her, ignoring her almost completely as I ransacked her room. "And would you mind not launching ice spears into my back while I'm working?"

I felt a Katana cut into my neck. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Mitsuru ordered, holding the sword against my throat with one hand and a blanket against her naked body with the other.

Yeah, she still sleeps in the buff…

I twisted around and squatted, grabbing her waist. "This tattoo!" I told her, pointing at her Kanji on her hip. "When did you get it!?"

She stepped back and slashed through my chest, dropping the blanket to kill me, but I wasn't in the mood for games. "WHEN!?" I shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders as the gash through my chest healed within seconds. "Please, I need you to tell me when you got that Tattoo and why." I begged, switching to Laksmi to make her trust me more.

It seemed to work. "Three days, on a whim." She replied, stepping back as several dozen guns were aimed for me. "Now answer me: what are you!?"

I laughed maniacally. "That's not exactly important." I told her. "Because frankly, we've got bigger issues right now."

Mitsuru glared. "Like what?" She asked, getting her Katana ready to strike and freezing the blade.

"Like that sign over there that said 'Two in Harmony Surpasses One in Perfection' twelve seconds ago?" I asked. "Now it says Bad Wolf."

Mitsuru span around and looked at it as I browsed across her desk and passed her blanket for her to cover herself. "That's not all." I told her. "Your drivers licence says that your name is Bad Wolf, born on the Bad Wolf'th of Bad Wolf in Bad Wolf Bad Wolf, and that your gender is Bad Wolf." I tossed that aside. "The romance novel by your bed? Bad Wolf by Bad Wolf. Those two words have been stalking us Persona users all day, probably longer." I glared at the clock.

Ten seconds to midnight. "The Kanji of Akuro on your hip?" I asked, offering for Mitsuru to translate it into English.

Sufficiently weirded out, Mitsuru simply answered as the clock struck Midnight.

"Evil Wolf."

* * *

**=] 13 [=**

* * *

White flames rushed up around Mitsuru's security, encasing them in large, white cases that looked a lot like canine fangs.

Mitsuru and I rushed outside as the black night sky was scorched bone white with black clouds rushing across the sky far too fast.

The moon was blood red, with a deep, black gash down the centre of it.

I looked back towards the building as the wall was slashed open with three parallel lines. There was no damage done, but black blood began to ooze out of the wounds.

"If it makes you feel better, this probably isn't your fault." I told Mitsuru. "Bad Wolf is a code Minato decided on in case he needed to get the message across to me that shit was about to hit the fan. You probably saw a Bad Wolf earlier and it just stuck in your head or something."

"It's the Dark Hour, isn't it?" Mitsuru grunted, clenching a fist around her katana.

"Something similar." I told her. "I've no idea what, but I can guarantee that Nyx isn't behind it this time."

"How can you be so sure?" She asked.

"Because Minato's got her and Erebus sealed tight; they aren't in any position to do anything."

Mitsuru turned to glare at me. "Just who are you?" She asked.

I turned to her. "Me?" I asked. "I'm his Shadow."

* * *

**=] 12 [=**

* * *

Chidori fell onto her knees as the wolves howled in her head, screaming in pain as her mind burnt.

The bathroom door burst open. "CHIDORI!!" Junpei shouted, forcing his way through. "CHIDORII!!!"

"I… I remember…" Chidori gasped as Junpei grabbed her. "Junpei… it's happening…"

"Y-You remember..?" Junpei asked, then biting his lip and holding her close. "I'm sorry for not telling you."

"It's okay…" She gasped. "But… it's coming…"

"Just calm down Chidorita." Junpei told her calmly. "We're gonna be alright, we just need to fight whatever's coming and win, alright?"

Chidori gasped in shock, then smiled. "You're right… Junpei…"

* * *

**=] 11 [=**

* * *

"Hey, Funky Student!"

The afro'ed accountant turned around in the darkness to see his old teammate Kanji running towards him with a large shield. "Hey yay!" He hollered. "Dis place be trippin' balls yo!"

"I hear ya Funky." Kanji told him as he caught up. "I reckon the Shadows'll be here soon enough too."

"Dayumn right Brotha." Funky Student nodded, reaching into his jacket and drawing a short metal pole, which flicked out into a staff. "And I think they'sa coming to partay."

"Heh." Kanji laughed, summoning the card for Rokuten-Maoh as Shadows approached from all sides. "Come on DOWN!"

* * *

**=] 10 [=**

* * *

Jun Kurosu stopped the world, just to take everything in. "So, these Shadows…" He pondered to himself. "Very well." He started time again and looked at the young couple who were preparing for a fight.

He created two staves and tossed them to the couple. "Here!" He shouted, walking over to them as branches grew from his flower stall and tore open a path through the Shadows as he walked towards them. "My name is Jun." He said. "And I just remembered a lot of things about Persona, how about you?"

The man gritted his teeth, then sighed. "Kenji." He replied. "And me too."

The black haired woman looked at her husband. "Ken-chan?" She asked.

"Sorry Rio." He chuckled, stepping forward and summoning a card into his hand. "ODYSSEUS!!" He summoned.

The armoured warrior burst forward and charged into the horde alongside Chronos, but there was far too many for them to deal with alone.

**SMASH**

The two men turned to Rio, who was surrounded with blue flames as a beautiful woman appeared above her head.

"_I am Siren… hear my song…"_

"I, Rio Iwasaki, command you…" Rio cast her hand in front of the Shadows and glared. "DIE!!"

The Shadows in front of her paused, then raised their hands to their own masks and forcibly smashed them, screaming as they killed themselves.

"All hail Rio…" Kenji said breathlessly, surprised.

* * *

**=] 9 [=**

* * *

Naoki's head snapped around as everything in the Kitchen stopped. Shinji looked back at him, and they both dropped everything and looked inside the restaurant.

Everyone had been encased in the white fangs. "Shit." Shinji swore, running upstairs to check on the others.

Naoki stepped outside and tore down the wall Shinji created earlier.

BAD WOLF

* * *

**=] 8 [=**

* * *

Nanako rolled around in her bed and raised her head to see why her pillow was so sticky.

It was bleeding.

She yelped and jumped out of bed, wondering why the world had gone so messed up, and looked out the window to see Kanji and the Funky Student fighting monsters with other monsters.

"Persona…" Nanako whispered. "Why do I…"

She clutched at her head and felt sick, and looked out the window again to see a green van drive into the battle and Namatame jumped out.

"The hell you doin' outta prison!?" Kanji shouted at him.

"Parole for good behaviour." Namatame answered. "So, this power… you call it Persona..?"

"What's it to you!?" Kanji shouted, crushing a Shadow under his shield.

Namatame took a deep breath, and summoned a card into his hand.

"**MAMORU IZANAGI!!**"

Namatame was surrounded in a green light as the black figure of Izanagi formed above his head, green scales forming on the cloak as the lance morphed into a wide cross-spear. Great shoulder blades formed outside the cloak, and two great flags rose out of his shoulders, one bearing the kanji of 'Love', and the other 'Peace'.

Namatame brought his hand forward and Mamoru Izanagi stabbed its spear into the ground, creating a protective bubble around himself, Kanji, Funky Student and Nanako. "I'll keep you all safe!" Namatame declared as his Persona descended over his head. "Please, let me atone for what I did."

"Cool wit me, brotha!" Funky Student declared, twirling the metal staff in his hands and charging back into the brawl.

Nanako stepped back in horror. "Daddy!" she shouted, running into her father's bedroom.

He wasn't there.

Just a white fang on his bleeding bed.

Nanako screamed.

* * *

**=] 7 [=**

* * *

Chie looked around the hospital as all the other patients turned into white spikes. She sat up, nursing her head.

Last thing she remembered was pushing the kid out of the way of that car…

"HEY!" Yukari shouted. "IS ANYONE ELSE STILL AWAKE!?"

Chie leapt from the bed and ran into the corridor. "HEY!" She shouted back. "YUKARI!"

Yukari turned around and saw her step sister and ran towards her. "Thank goodness…" She told Chie. "I was so worried… huh!?"

Chie looked behind her to see some Shadows form on the ground and approach her. "Haha… That's not good…" Chie said akwardly.

Yukari pushed Chie back. "Hey, hold on Yukari!" Chie shouted, trying to protect her defenceless step-sister.

"Those monsters." Said sister told Chie, pulling out a handgun from her scrubs. "We call them Shadows…"

Click.

"Hey, wait!" Chie shouted. "What're you doing!?"

"ISIS!"

**BLAM**

"Oh." Chie stated as the Shadows were obliterated in a flurry of green wind. "Oh, okay…"

* * *

**=] 6 [=**

* * *

Rise stumbled out of her chair and landed flat on her backside as her manager turned into an imposing, bone-like cocoon shaped like a tooth. She looked outside into the corridor, which was completely filled with a mass of white substance: it was impossible to get out.

She opened her phone, but there was no service, the clock had stopped at 00:00, the background changed to black, with the words BAD WOLF emblazoned on it in white letters.

She knelt down in her room. "No…" She gasped, clutching at her head. Would she be trapped here forever? Would she ever escape..?

Something in her hand felt warm, so she brought it to her face.

Kanzeon's card…

Rise stood up and summoned her Persona. She felt Kanzeon hold the red mask in front of her face, and she searched for her friends.

It was surprisingly easy outside of the fog. In fact, there were hundreds of people, all over the world, feeling exactly the same as she felt, all alone with only their Persona for company.

She felt another presence. _~ Everyone, it's all right! ~_ A calming voice in her head said. _~ I know that this is scary, but hopefully everything will be alright in an hour. ~_

Rise let out a sigh of relief. -^- "Who is this?" -^- Rise broadcasted. -^- "What's happening?" -^-

_~ Huh!? Are you Risette? ~_

Rise smiled to herself. She still had fans, even with the world like this. -^- "Yeah, that's me, who's this?" -^-

_~ Oh, my name is Fuuka Yamagishi. ~_ The other voice said. _~ We've experienced something like this before, so if this is like the Dark Hour, then everything will turn back to normal in an hour and everyone without a Persona will know anything even happened. ~_

-^- "Alright, I trust you on this." -^- Rise told this Fuuka person. -^- "We're going to need to meet up when all this is over." -^-

_~ I agree. Can you find your friends while I find mine? ~_

Rise nodded. -^- "Okay!" -^- She declared, getting to work.

* * *

**=] 5 [=**

* * *

The wolf growled as Shadows approached, interrupting the beast's meal. The Shadow's hesitated, but rushed towards him regardless.

The wolf, having regained his strength, howled at the sky, and black flames fell down from the sky, incinerating the Shadows they crushed and forming the shape of a great black dog.

_**I AM BLACK SHUCK**_ The Persona snarled. _**THE HOUND OF THY DOOM**_

The Persona roared, and all the Shadows within the wolf's sight burst into flames and died, screaming in agony as they burnt.

Black Shuck faded, having done its work, and the wolf left its finished meal and prowled the night once more.

* * *

**=] 4 [=**

* * *

One cocoon of bone in Iwatodai smashed open, and Akihiko Sanada stepped out in a suit and tie. "Dammit…" He swore, before standing up straight and looking around.

"What happened to the dorm?" He asked, then walked up to where he used to live and reading the sign. "Iwatodai apartments… dammit!" He shouted, running down the street as fast as he could to find a phone booth. "Dammit… Mitsuru… Shinji… Minato…" He stopped and punched the wall. "I've got an hour a night and I can't even find them!? I'm useless!"

He sighed, then looked around again. At least Ken would be in the Tatsumi student dorms, unless Shinji took him in.

Akihiko laughed at himself. "Yeah, like Shinji'd do something like that." He told himself, setting off at a run towards the main dormitories.

* * *

**=] 3 [=**

* * *

Kazushi summoned his Persona Musashi against the Shadows, forcing them back as he tried to defend himself.

"I suppose I might perhaps be of some assistance?" An unfamiliar voice asked him, before obliterating dozens of the crawling Shadows.

A blonde woman dressed in blue walked into Kazushi's vision, snapping her large book shut. "My name is Elizabeth." She told him.

"K-Kazushi Miyamoto…" Kazushi gasped in amazement.

She smiled at him. "I am delighted to make your acquaintance."

* * *

**=] 2 [=**

* * *

Yukiko rushed through the city, seeking out any other people who were awake in the current situation, thinking about what was happening. All of the Investigation Team had moved to Tatsumi Port Island for university, except for Rise who was on tour in Hokkaido, and Kanji and Teddie who stayed in Inaba, though Teddie had come over for a couple of days and was staying with Seta and Yosuke while Naoto was in Europe following a lead on her case.

Come to think of it, that's only half the investigation team really, but at least they were all together.

Usually.

Right now doesn't exactly count, even though Yukiko would really appreciate it if someone could help her fight the mass of Shadows that were approaching her.

A jet of darkness rushed from the side, tearing through the Shadows like a hurricane. It was a young man, completely covered in tattoos. "HEY!" He shouted, burst towards her. "You okay?" He asked.

"Y-yeah, fine." Yukiko replied. "How many Shadows are there?" She asked the man.

"Oh, you're already in the know then." The man nodded. "Well, my name's Naoki and they'll keep coming for what we hope will be the next three-quarters of an hour."

"Why that long?" Yukiko asked him as she turned around to face the Shadows coming from behind.

"Because that's how long the Dark Hour normally lasts- GET DOWN!!"

Naoki forced her to the ground as a black darts descended from the sky, piercing through more than half of the Shadows.

"DAMMIT MARINA-SAN!" Naoki shouted, getting back up and helping Yukiko to her feet.

"SORRY!" A voice in the distance apologised. "ANY SIGN OF TARTARUS!?"

Naoki looked towards the ocean. "NO, IT HASN'T COME UP!" He shouted.

"WELL SHIT!" Another, angrier voice shouted. "NOW WHAT DO WE DO!?"

"AMATERASU!" Yukiko shouted, smashing the card with a fan from her bag, summoning the goddess of the sun to incinerate the approaching Shadows.

"This'll do for now, won't it?" Yukiko asked Naoki, fanning herself lightly.

* * *

**=] 1 [=**

* * *

Yosuke looked around the bar, which was now filled with rows of white teeth, himself, Teddie and his favourite barman. "Oh man." Yosuke said, stepping off his barstool as it began to bleed. "This is not good."

"You're telling me…" Teddie said. "This is Veritas De Sköll."

"Truth of Treachery?" Seta translated.

Yosuke turned back. "Alright, how do you speak Italian?" He asked him.

"Latin, Then Norse." Seta corrected. "Complete paradox in more ways than one."

"Highest culture and deepest brutality." Teddie nodded. "But that's not all. See, Sköll was the wolf who'll eat the sun at Ragnarök."

"Which means 'The Doom of the Gods'" Seta told Yosuke.

"I know that dammit!" Yosuke shouted. "But what the hell just happened!?"

"A few years ago, a previous generation of Persona users ended an event that happened each night at midnight called the Dark Hour-" Teddie started, but was stopped.

"What the hell!?" Yosuke shouted. "So now there's other Persona users!?"

"Just let him talk Yosuke." Seta told him, turning back to Teddie. "Explain what you know, we won't interrupt."

"Thanks." Teddie sighed. "So, the Dark Hour was a period of time lasting one hour between midnight and one minute past twelve in the morning, when everyone who didn't have a Persona or was on the right kind of drugs transmogrified into a coffin and had no idea that anything happened.  
"Every night, a team of Persona users entered a tower called Tartarus and fought Shadows." Teddie continued. "They did this for ten years, until a young boy with Death sealed within him came and led them to victory against Nyx; an entity far stronger than Izanami was."

Yosuke opened his mouth to speak, but Seta hushed him. "The young boy gave his life to seal both Nyx and her consort Erebus away for eternity, and it'll stay that way until humans stop wishing for the end.  
"Now, Arisoto sent someone to do his work- whoa, sensei!"

"Did you just say Arisoto?" Seta asked Teddie, grabbing him by his collar with both hands and dragging him across the bar.

"Yeah, Minato Arisoto!" Teddie explained. "He was the one who sealed Nyx and died on January thirty-first, 2010!!"

"March actually." Seta replied, dropping Teddie. "Sorry, must be the wrong guy…"

"No, he died in January." Teddie continued with shame. "His Shadow controlled the body for a month or so after that…"

"Uh, hey, what about not interrupting?" Yosuke asked as Seta backed into the bar shelves. "I mean, this is a lot to take in, but-"

"Minato Arisoto is Naoto's brother, and is the reason I gained the Wild Card and went into bartending." Seta explained.

"Alright, Teddie, why the hell didn't you tell us this sooner?" Yosuke asked.

"And for that matter, you haven't said 'Kuma' lately either." Seta pointed out. "Or made any 'unbearable' jokes."

Teddie growled. "Look, I'm a Shadow like him too, alright!?" He snapped. "But that's not what's important right now!"

Yosuke sighed. "Alright, carry on Teddie." He said.

"Alright." Teddie rustled. "So, this thing is kinda similar, but it has some different rules."

"Like what?" Seta asked him.

"I don't know…" Teddie admitted. "This has never happened before…"

* * *

**=] 0 [=**

* * *

In the dark prison cell, the all-encompassing tally scratchings on the walls had rearranged themselves to form two words, repeating themselves all over again as they oozed black ichor from the concrete walls.

The prisoner within stood to his feet as he heard footsteps echo off the steel floors of the prison, and approached the door to see who was there.

Once he saw his visitor, Tohru Adachi chuckled in the darkness of his cell. "And so it begins…"

* * *

**-}+{-**

* * *

So… see you all in two years then.


	2. Dirge of Erebus

Well everyone. I got my mission call. I'll be back on March, 2013. Until then, I'm keeping in contact with Casey W, who is writing Persona 4: Face Every Shadow. Go read it, it shall be amazing, and will explain a lot.

Here is my farewell gift to you all. Six months of rewriting to create epic like that you have never seen before.

With this playlist.

youtube.  
com/watch?  
v=r7uuSW8fVD4&  
feature=BF&list=  
PL31678A443AC7A806&index=1

Or just search Dirge of Erebus. Alternatively, you can just listen to either Akai Tsuki (Embodiment of Scarlet Devil) _**OR**_ Worth Dying For (Radiant Mythology 2) on a loop. I prefer the second, but LunarDragon2607, who helped set up the playlist, prefers the first.

Take this chapter with a pinch of salt. No corners have been cut. The plot is nothing as it seems.

Get ready.

* * *

**-}+{-**

* * *

_Once, I dreamed I was a boy, dreaming I was a man; then I awoke._

_Now I wonder:_

_Am I a monster who dreamt of being a boy, or am I a boy dreaming that I am a monster?_

* * *

"What do you mean, 'His Shadow'?" Mitsuru asked me, katana at the ready.

I sighed. "Exactly that." I told her, turning around. "No, I'm not Ryoji. No, I'm not Orpheus. No, I'm not that thing you probably fought in the Abyss, not sure if you ever met it." I glanced at her to check that she was following the conversation. "I'm the manifestation of everything He hates about Himself, and I'm here because He's occupied at the moment, now are you planning on staying naked or are you going to let me think?"

She blushed as I created a set of clothes for her and tossed them. I'll tell you what; I've gotten good at using the Hollow Arcana's power.

I sat on the floor, cross-legged and closed my eyes as I tried to work out what's happening as Mitsuru got dressed behind me.

It was harder than I thought it'd be.

Omniscience is hard to control when Mitsuru is getting changed around you.

Best do this manually.

I opened my eyes and looked around the area not consisting of redhead. Bad Wolf, white sky at night, black clouds floating past crazy fast, red moon with ominous black slash that makes it look like a demonic eye, non-combatants turned to fangs, and the floor and walls are bleeding.

It's different from when they bled during the Dark Hour though. The walls aren't damaged, but they have wounds, as if they'd been attacked by a wild animal.

Too many parallels to the Dark Hour, yet too many differences to be the same thing.

There's certainly a canine theme going on.

Now what dog-gods are capable of this?

No. No I'm barking up the wrong tree here.

Who's capable of this and wants me to think it's a canine god?

Someone who doesn't want me to know it's them.

Alright. So, what does my mystery demon want me to think?

Inversed sky with a red moon. Although, the black clouds look akin to a pack of wolves chasing the light.

The white sky isn't bright, which is strange. The world is bathed in white shadows, yet crawling in black Shadows.

Why Shadows?

Nyarlathotep is most likely involved, but again, that's just an assumption.

Red slashes across the wall, yet bleeding black blood.

I got up and walked over to the wound, feeling it. The gash is warm, but the blackness flowing out of it is cold, sticky and hard.

A living wound and a dead bloodstain.

Life and Death.

Alright, people getting trapped in fangs. Why fangs?

I pulled a stethoscope from my pocket and plugged it into my ears, placing the metal disc to the white bone-like shell.

The people inside are alive, but in statis- people?

No, there was definitely one fang per person.

I moved the stethoscope around the massive tooth, listening to the sounds.

One heartbeat.

Coming from two different locations.

The second location is smaller, less human.

I grinned. "Homo-daemonic symbiotic-mitosis." I whispered. That's clever. I've seen a fair few things, but this is new.

And brilliant.

"Symbiotic-mitosis?" Mitsuru asked me from behind. "So the fang is an incubation chamber to grow a demon from a human?"

"More than that." I explained, looking through the back of my head to check she was both decent and dressed. "One heartbeat, one life-force. Kill one, guess what happens to the other."

Mitsuru's eyes narrowed. "So we will be facing demons that we mustn't kill without losing innocent human life." She said angrily. "Cowards."

I turned around and looked at her. "You know, you shouldn't go around killing demons just because they're not human either." I told her. "I've met more evil humans than I have evil demons."

"What about the Shadows?" Mitsuru asked.

"Oh, kill 'em all, present company excluded." I told her. "They're just the anthropomorphic avatars of humanity's self-hate and fears. They're not exactly real." I turned back to Hiruma's incubation fang. "But these guys are gonna be like Shadow's, only sharing life with another human being. If they die, then the human powering them dies, so you'll have to be the one fighting them, not me."

Mitsuru smiled. "You always did leave the small fry to others." She said.

"Minato did that." I corrected her. "I'm going to stay well away from this fight."

She glared at me. "Pardon?"

"That's why it's so brilliant." I told her. "I could wipe out all of these symbiotic demons in a heartbeat. I'm only asking you to fight them without me because I assume you want your staff to see tomorrow."

She sighed. "Very well." She told me with a nod. "You said that you were going to explain the situation."

"No, I didn't, but fine." I sighed. "This is something called Veritas De Sköll." I told her.

"Truth of treachery?" Mitsuru translated.

"Or the goddess of truth and the sun eater." I sighed, before making the connection. "Sköll was the wolf who shall eat the sun at Ragnarok." I told her. "But it's midnight. Hati Hróðvitnisson chases the moon." I looked up at the sky. "So why is Sköll here? Why isn't it 'Truth of the Enemy'?"

I felt her smile behind me. She's loving this. The mystery of the unknown, the anticipation of the coming battle, the feeling of being with Minato…

"He's dead." I told her. "He's only coming back once every human has no desire to die, or if Nyx's arrival wouldn't make things any worse."

"I know." She glared. "So, how are you His Shadow?"

"He was special." I told her. "And Death was there helping me grow intellectually, so yeah."

She smiled in spite of herself. "So, what now?"

"Well, that's the problem." I told her. "I don't know, so I was thinking of going to the one person who probably understood Him better than I did."

"Aigis?" Mitsuru asked. "Why would she know?"

I turned around and raised an eyebrow. "I lent her the key to the Velvet Room because she suffered the worst from His death." I explained. "If not her, then it would have been Yukari. I don't know what happened in the Abyss but I can assure you that since I can't get to Igor right now, the man I'm about to see is the next best thing."

Mitsuru turned to the building she slept in and lifted up her hand as her watch was carried to her on a stream of ice. "Well, there is another forty minutes of this new Dark hour left-"

"It's not the Dark Hour." I told her. "This is Veritas De Sköll. A whole new set of rules, or else your men would have joined us."

She sighed. "Of course. So, where is this man?"

I closed my eyes on focused on the one psychopath in the world that still has a Velvet Key.

I only saw darkness.

I opened my eyes. "Why the hell-"

WHAM

I was forced to the floor by a massive lion made of blackness. A rush of darkness took the shape of a black bull and rammed Mitsuru against the wall. She coughed up blood as some sort of massive, black bird of prey dropped a badly beaten guy in a white shirt and green pants on the floor.

The bird perched on the guy's shoulders and began pecking at the back of his head. He looks familiar.

Wait…

"Adachi?" I asked him.

Yeah, that's my man.

This is both convenient and unsettling. At least now I know whoever is behind this has covered all my immediate bases…

He opened one eye through the blood and smirked. "Well, whaddya know?" he chuckled, blood oozing out of his teeth. "The Oncoming Storm himself, a Shadow." He laughed as he coughed up blood. "You even stole your own title from some other guy, you arrogant prick."

I chuckled despite the lion crushing me into the ground. "You know, you're just like an evil sociopathic Matsuda." I told him. "So, care to fill me in on what's going-?"

I choked.

It felt like a clamp around my neck, cutting off my air- but I don't need to bloody _breathe…_

So how the hell..?

The lion stepped off me and flipped me onto my back with its paw, and I couldn't do anything to resist it.

There was a black chain coming from the gap in my shirt, connected to my stomach like an umbilical chord.

I leaned my head back so I could see where it led, and an angel was holding it in the air, while the rest of it led into the night sky.

I hate angels. I really do.

Someone laughed behind me. "Amazing." It said. Female. Arrogant. The kind of voice that belongs to someone who likes to call themselves 'Pure'.

"Fire and Ice and Rage." She laughed. "The Oncoming Storm. The Blackest Night and the Brightest Dawn. The Healer of Hearts and the Destroyer of Worlds. The Eater of Gods and the Swallower of Pain. The Nightmare Child and the Father of Death. The Fallen Angel and the Towering Beast. The Remnant of the Harbour of Sorrow, the guide through the path the gatherer dug."

I lifted my head to see the pale woman, her naked body cloaked by four of her six wings and a white ribbon that floated in the air. "The Shadow of the Universe himself has fallen to me." She laughed, her eyes black and her iris's white, silver hair blowing in a wind that wasn't there.

I grunted. "Now who might you be?" I asked her.

She laughed. "I am WORLD, my dear Universe." She said, bending down to look closely at me. "One could say that we belong as each other."

I smirked. "Now we both know that's a lie." I retorted. "Go on, who are you really?"

"I am the Arcana." She replied, standing upright.

"Strike Two." I replied, shaking my head. "One more and you're out."

The woman glanced at the angel, who yanked my chain. "_**AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHH!**_" I screamed, because it bloody _**hurt**_!

The woman snickered. "You know what that is, don't you, Shadow?" she asked. "That's your connection with your Other, isn't it?"

I glared, panting for breath I didn't need.

Bloody hell, all this time and I was only ever on _life support?_

_Did he trust me that little?  
_

She giggled now. "Cut it."

_**What**_

_**KTCH**_

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!**_"

My mind went blank with pain for a moment, and after a second I realised it was me who was doing the screaming.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!**_"

Well sod that.

I ground my fangs together and looked to my right to see my arm dissolving. Red and Black ichor lined the inside of my hollow skin as it collapsed into black smoke.

"_**RRAGGHH!**_" I roared as a hole burst through my chest as I abandoned the body, taking my true form as a Shadow as I charged at my enemy.

The angel pulled me back and I went into spasms, the constricting pain even worse now. I collapsed and the bitch laughed. "You really are just a Shadow…" she snickered. "Collar him."

_**WHAT**_

I turned on the floor as the angel walked over to Adachi and rammed the broken links of the chain into his neck, and my body returned to normal. "Wh-wha..?"

The woman claiming to be Arcana smiled. "Oh, it wouldn't be fun just to kill you." She told me. "We're going to play a little game."

I glared at her as I panted for breath. "Wh-what..?"

She smiled. "Every night, at midnight, the world will turn like this for one hour." She said, raising a finger. "In that time, that chain will become visible, and you need to move it to someone else of the next Arcana up, from Fool to Magician, and so on. Naturally, you can only do it with people who are awake during this time, so every time you reach Death, you have to collar a Fool. If you don't do it in an hour, well." She smirked. "I don't have to tell you what'll happen, do I?"

I managed to get to my feet. "So, when does this game end?" I asked, hiding the fact that I could barely stand.

She giggled again. She was enjoying playing with me. "Every night, you must conquer the challenge that I shall set for you, in accordance to the rules dictated by my judge. And every time that there's a red moon like tonight?" She smirked. "One of my Arcana Brethren shall enter the world, halfway through the night. All of them, from Fool to myself. There's no rush though." she said. "It would be unfair to expect you to defeat such powerful enemies is such a short time, so we'll go easy on you concerning my fellow Arcana."

"Really." I said, deadpan. I don't believe a word of it.

"Really." She said, raising a finger as her smile turned downright sadistic. "If you cannot defeat my sibling before the Veritas De Sköll ends, we'll simply follow you into real time and our battle will continue." she grinned. "In fact, I cannot _wait_ until I can see your precious humans running for their lives."

I nodded. "And that sounds great." I told her. "If it wasn't for the fact that you're talking complete and utter crap about you and your buddies being the Arcana."

She titled her head. "I'm sorry?"

I smirked. "Why do you think Death is the Arcana that wasn't meant to be?" I asked her. "Because it's evil? Or because it's human?"

She glared, and I laughed, pacing around the garden. "The thirteenth Arcana represents change, the one thing that Shadows are incapable of. Out with the old, in with the new, when Shadows are formed from being unable to let go. Shadows beyond this are impossible, so your goal isn't to play with me." The glare turned into a snarl. "You aren't Shadows. You aren't even Arcana. You're just pretending to be something you're not to stop me from thinking about it. _**You just want to keep me busy so neither I nor He figures out what you're trying to achieve with Bad Wolf.**_"

The woman stared me down. "Well, whatever you believe." She said. "Fool should be arriving in Iwatodai in a few minutes, so I recommend getting there before he kills all of your favourite humans." She waved as her animals exploded into smoke. "If you didn't waste all that energy with your bravado right now, you could be there right now, but I suppose you'll just have to walk."

I fell to my knees.

I tried to pull myself up, but my arms were shaking too badly to support myself.

…what?

"Oh, I'm sorry." She laughed as Mitsuru began launching ice attacks at her, which she blocked effortlessly. "I forgot to mention. You're only able to use as much of His power that your current Pet can handle."

I rolled onto my side to see Adachi's wounds begin to heal. Now that I could focus, he'd taken a hell of a beating...

And now the power that was supposed to be enough for me to get things done was being used to heal him at a rate he could handle.

Why don't they just make me a lobotomised triple amputee with halitosis while they're at it?

No…

She's played her trump card, and now her hand's empty…

I grinned.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"You do realise..." I panted. "That by the time I get to Iwatodai, you're screwed." I grinned. "Because these humans can take a hell of a lot more than you idiots obviously think."

"Then there's the fact that you're dealing with me." I added, rolling over onto my gut. "Because there's one title that I earned myself."

I glared at her with an evil smile.

She knows the title I'm talking about.

She turned around in a huff and waved a hand as she walked away. Her little pets abandoned their prisoners and followed her, walking away into the oblivion as they faded from this plane of existence.

I forced myself back to my feet as the woman disappeared. "Mitsuru, get the bike." I told her as I pulled on the chain, dragging Adachi across the floor and hoisting him over my shoulder. "I need you to drive."

* * *

I shoved Adachi into the side car and climbed on Mitsuru's bike behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist. "Iwatodai." I told her, resting my head in her hair. "Sleep now, explanation after beatdown…"

I saw her smile as she revved the engines as I passed out.

Except Shadow's don't sleep.

I need to know about my opponent before I get there.

* * *

(/')

* * *

Fire coursed down the wide Moonlight Bridge connecting Port Island to Iwatodai as the last of the Shadows burned. "So…" Yukiko panted, closing her fan. "That's it then..?"

"By the looks of it." Naoki told her, the black lines of the demonic seal crawling back to his stomach. "Nice job."

She smiled. "Thanks."

_~ Guys! ~_ Fuuka called. _~ Something powerful coming! Shinjiro-san and the others are coming to help! ~_

"Heh, there's always a bigger fish." Naoki grinned, black lines growing back. "Wouldn't be fun otherwise."

A puddle of darkness formed in the middle of the road. Two red orbs formed inside of them, and they ascended with an otherwise empty black body.

A wide jawbone formed around the beast's head, with two long bone-like horns protruding from the back, like a gazelle.

The monster was humanoid, standing proud with its powerful arms folded, but it had a second head between its legs, one that leered at the two with two red orbs and a jawbone that ended with two large horns, this time twisting to face forward, like a bulls.

Fuuka gasped.

_~ It's Erebus! ~_ she shouted. _~ The manifestation of humanity's grief and sorrow! But… it wasn't like this before… ~_

Erebus stood at seven feet tall, before sliding into a tight boxing stance and pacing around the pair.

_~ Wait… ~_ Fuuka asked. _~ Is it… is it going to fight like a human? ~_

Naoki grinned. "Sounds interesting." He said, glancing at Yukiko. "Steer clear." He told her, vaulting over a car and circling around the Darkness, his own fists at the ready.

He glared into the eyes of the Abyss, and they glared right back.

The Demi-Fiend charged.

The Darkness slammed a fist into his gut, winding Naoki and launching him against the metal pillar holding the bridge up. Hito-Shura coughed up blood as Erebus leaped for him, grabbing him by the head and bringing his face into its knee.

The Demi-Fiend stabbed at the monster's throat with its hand, bursting through the inky blackness before being thrown to the ground. Erebus landed on top of him but was knocked back by a flaming fan that struck its temple.

Erebus rolled on the ground and launched a blast of ice at her as a great stone tomahawk slammed through its back. It hopped onto its hands and lunged at Shinji, its feet exchanging form with its hands as the monster snatched the Persona user.

It picked him up like a ragdoll and, with another powerful leap, smashed Aragaki through three trucks with raw power alone. It reared back mid flight to slam Shinji into a brand new crater on a steel pillar when Marina burst in, landing a drop-kick on the Abyss' head and forcing it to drop him.

It raised a hand and created a barrier and block the girl's next attack. Marina's hand reached for her Evoker, but her summon was interrupted by Erebus punching through its own barrier and kicking upwards to send her into the air. Swivelling around, it dashed forward to ram Shinji as he got back to his feet, sending him hurtling through the air and into a steel wall.

Erebus lowered its bull head and charged, aimed to gore Shinji through. Before he could reach, Kenjamin burst down onto the monster, his spear stabbed through its head. Erebus froze, as if surprised, when the spear released a powerful blast of light, forcing the darkness to explode.

With nothing left to support the spear, Kenjamin fell to the ground on his backside, before getting back to his feet. "IT'S NOT OVER YET!" he shouted, bringing the spear back to his hand and charging up electricity. "FUUKA! Where's it gonna reform?"

_~ It's under your feet! ~_ She shouted, adding _~ Look out! ~_ as Kenjamin jumped to avoid the hand that would have grasped his ankle and launching his spear through a powerful spiral of electricity at the puddle of darkness beneath him.

Erebus lunged up, through the spear and slammed a palm into the middle school boy, launching a powerful dark blast through it.

_~ Kenjamin! ~_ Fuuka screamed as the deadly Mudo blast enveloped the boy.

It got knocked back as Kenjamin kicked through the blast, his foot connecting with the beast's jaw. "Eye of Darkness." He explained with a grin, pulling the black orb from his pocket and tossing it into the air like an apple. "Gotta love it."

A white spear lashed out, stabbing through the ball and whipping out, shattering the orb and slicing the boy's hand off. "Aw crap!" Kenjamin shouted, jumping back as he began to regrow the lost appendage as Shinji rammed Erebus from the side with a massive stone arm around his own.

The monster rolled on the ground, avoiding Shinji's barrage of attacks as Marina drew her Evoker and began summoning various Personae to bombard it with elemental attacks. Erebus switched its top and bottom and lunged through Shinji's feet, bringing him to the ground as it got up and launched both a Ragnarok and a Niffelheim spell at the redhead.

She switched to Skadi, ready to absorb both devastating attacks, as Koromaru leapt between the two and roared, summoning Fenrir to create a wall of flame to block the attack. The Abyss reared back, preparing to hurl another spell, and was caught off-guard as Shinji rose up behind Erebus and crushed it under his fist. It exploded into darkness and bounced along the bridge until it reached the Iwatodai-side bay, where it was attacked from both sides by wind and ice attacks.

Reinforcements had arrived.

Erebus blocked the twin maelstroms around him with barriers as a woman leapt into the night sky and began firing bullets from her fingers. The flying metal tore through Erebus' body as Yosuke and Teddie charged forward and attacked with their edged weapons, Yosuke destroying the upper jawbone and Teddie slashing at the lower head.

Erebus collapsed into the darkness as Yosuke wiped his brow. "Man, this guy is tough." He gasped, before jumping into the air and spinning around to kick Erebus into the canal of glowing white water as it reformed behind him. "All yours Ted."

The blonde young man summoned a blue card and slashed it with the claws that came from his knuckles as a large, round figure with a tomahawk missile dove into the water and froze it with a blue explosion of cold. "Not bad." Teddie grinned to himself, jumping back as Erebus burst from the ice, looming in the air above them.

Shinji launched himself from the bridge and smashed a large stone club into Erebus' back, launching it into a building as he landed on the bay, skidding across the concrete below. "Alright…" Shinji grunted, getting back to his feet and popping his shoulder back in. "Let's do this shit."

Aigis, Koromaru, Marina and Naoki ran up to fight alongside them. "Where's Kenjamin and the girl?" Shinji asked, taking command.

"She's helping him heal his hand." Naoki explained, cricking his neck. "Who're the newbies?"

"Hey, you're talking to Yosuke Hanamura himself." The brown-haired young man told them, twirling his knives in his hand. "Don't worry, we've got back up on the way, he'll take care of this."

"Really." Shinji asked deadpan. "Because we've killed this thing before, only he was bigger."

"What?" Teddie asked, before shaking his head in realisation. "You're Minato's friends. Of course you've fought this before."

Aigis's neck almost snapped as she whipped around to stare at Teddie. "You knew Him?" she asked the other blonde.

"Aigis-san!" Kenji shouted, running up to the group with a fireman's axe in hand. "Aragaki-senpai and Marina-san!" he added, before thumbing to the others. "Who are these guys?"

"Ah, Kenji-san." Teddie nodded. "Sorry, you probably won't recognise me like this…"

"Teddie?" Kenji asked, shaking his head as he faced the rubble. "Never mind, monster to kill."

Erebus strode out of the smoking crater, and everyone decided to save their greetings for after the battle.

"Everyone." Aigis decided. "Circle around it, and keep it under control. Fuuka-san, we'll need you to provide support. Please have Rise-san direct Yukari-san and the others to our location."

_~ Yes Aigis. ~_ Fuuka replied. _~ I can't find Junpei-kun, someone's helping Rio-san home, Mitsuru's on her way, and she says that she has reinforcements, but it'll be some time before she gets here. ~_

"Tell me when she gets there." Kenji asked Fuuka. "Aigis, we're ready for your orders."

"Right." Aigis nodded, before a surge of darkness rose up beside her. Erebus gave her a passing glance with its blood-red stare and drove a fist into her midsection, knocking her away.

"HEY!" Shinji shouted, before getting backhanded by the same monster, which then rolled under everyone's spells and started punching up Naoki and Kenji simultaneously.

"_HEEEE**YA!**_"

Erebus was knocked back by a flying kick to the face, both it and Chie rolling on the ground as Shinji got to his feet, wiping blood from his mouth. "Dammit…" he growled as Aigis burst forward, grabbing the Darkness by the horns and throwing it into the air as it was caught in Yukari's green storm, as Fuuka told her it would.

Erebus burst out from the storm and suffered a bone-crushing punch in the jaw from Naoki, who grabbed it by the horns and rammed its face into his kneecaps repeatedly. The Demi-Fiend snarled as he rained blows on the monster. "JUST DIE DAMN-" He stopped, coughing black blood as a black fist shot through his stomach.

He drove his feet against the horns near Erebus' pelvis and kicked off, running to Yukari for healing as Marina and Shinji began launching powerful attacks to smash the monster into the ground.

As they stopped to rest, Teddie and Yosuke charged in, quickly slashing at Erebus, not to do damage but to keep it from attacking and, just as important, healing.

_~ Okay! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ Get back! ~_

Teddie jumped back, but the monster struck out with a hand and caught Yosuke by the throat. He threw his arms up as a furious surge of fire rose around them and both he and Erebus were hit by the combined fire attacks of Yukiko, Koromaru and Marina. "YOSUKE!" Chie shouted as the flames turned into a blazing cyclone.

Yosuke burst from the top of it, a green circular blade cycling around him as his hair burst into crimson flames. "_**THROW DOWN!**_" he roared, spinning in the air as he launched two crossing green blades into the flames as Erebus leapt upwards. Without even pausing, the Darkness went bursting through them and smashed Yosuke in the gut. As it brought it's other fist back for another punch, Aigis ran along the wall of a building and lunged for the beast, kicking it in the face before firing round after round point blank into its eyes.

Erebus caught her wrists, then hoisted itself onto her back and kicked her to the ground, landing outside the team's circle. It got into a stance as the twelve fighters all turned to face it.

Make that thirteen, as Jun landed next to Kenji.

"I got her home." He told him with a whisper. "The baby's fine."

"Thank you." Kenji replied, turning back to face the enemy as he summoned Odysseus to refill his Tarukaja. "Fuuka, have you finished scanning its weakness?"

_~ It doesn't have any. ~_ Fuuka told everyone. _~ But it is taking damage. Our best option is to keep hitting it with all we've got and eventually it'll cave in. ~_

As if to spite her, Erebus charged forward, clotheslining Naoki and Shinji in one blow before spinning into a powerful kick that sent Yosuke flying. Chie jumped into a powerful head kick, but the Darkness caught her shin as it blocked Marina's roundhouse aimed for its ribs, then kicked the redhead back. Erebus slammed Chie forcefully into the ground, but Koromaru jumped onto Erebus' back and burst into flames, tearing at the Shadow's throat.

Erebus thrust its shoulders back, throwing the dog off it as Teddie slashed with claws of ice as Kenji summoned Odysseus to launch a powerful spear through its face, which Kenjamin caught and returned in power tenfold, tearing a wide hole in Erebus' chest.

Yukari kept clear of the action, healing the injured alongside Yukiko and occasionally firing a powerful spell at the enemy. Jun and Kenji worked in unison with Teddie and Kenjamin to hack and slash at Erebus, dancing around each other, constantly striking blow after blow as Erebus turtled over and hunched into a ball on the ground.

"COME ON!" Shinji roared, leaping into the fray, slamming a crushing stone-axe blow into the Shadow, breaking its defence as Naoki charged it, limbs blurring as it laid impact after impact into the beast's chest.

"TAG!" Kenjamin shouted, charging in as Shinji tore Naoki back away from Erebus' powerful punch. With two hands glowing in holy light, Kenjamin grabbed Erebus by the horns and flung it to the ground, leaping back as fire and ice began to spiral around Erebus. Kenjamin ran around the forming cyclone, hopping onto the wall of a building and running up it before leaping over the funnel and launching a powerful lance of lightning down the spiralling heat and cold, striking Erebus as it stood to its feet.

He crashed into the water as the flash began to die. "Good plan Fuuka-san!" Aigis shouted, popping her shoulder back in as Yukari healed it.

_~ Thank you, but __it's__ not over yet! ~_ Fuuka shouted._ ~ You're almost half way! __Oh… another persona user is here now!_

"Sorry I'm late…" Seta panted, bending over to catch his breath. "Had to… get everything together…"

"Are you a Fool?" Marina asked him, checking his Arcana.

"You too?" Seta replied as his eyebrows rose.

"Got Satan?" Marina asked as Erebus began to stride from the smoke.

Seta summoned a card into his hand as Marina got her Evoker ready. "Alright, use Black Viper; I'll take care of the rest. _ARMAGEDDON!_"

**BLAM**

**SMASH**

The foul serpent coiled around Seta as the pale angel rose from Marina's mind. She directed the combined powers of Black Viper and Morning Star as her cousin once did to create a powerful surge of Almighty light. The combined forces that made the almighty Armageddon consumed Erebus whole; devouring the Shadow and destroying it.

She fell to her knees, panting, as the orb of destruction faded, leaving only smoke. "How… how're we doing Fuuka?"

_~ One more will finish it! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ You have just enough power! ~_

"Ugh…" Marina groaned, leaning on a convenient rock to support her. "Alright white boy, you know the drill."

Seta raised an eyebrow at her, but held his tongue as he summoned the card for another Black Viper attack.

"SATAN!"

**SMASH**

**BLAM**

This time, Seta helped direct the opposing powers of the Light Bringer and the Adversary, creating an even more destructive force to consume all that was within its path.

A blast of light and a roar that shook the air enveloped Erebus.

And when the smoke cleared, nothing remained.

Marina smiled, sliding to the ground as she fell asleep. "Hey!" Shinji shouted, rushing over to her.

"I'm fine…" she whispered. "Just… exhausted…"

_~ We did it! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ We did it, and everyone's okay! ~_

Shinji held Marina's hand. He knew she was made of tough stuff, concerning who her cousin was, but he still died from overusing his Persona, and he did not want the same thing to happen to her.

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

Shinji's blood ran cold.

Yukari froze.

Aigis stalled.

Kenjamin stopped climbing back onto the bay.

Naoki stood bolt upright.

Fuuka was silent.

The others couldn't appreciate the terror the others felt, but they knew that this was not a good thing.

_**Dreams mean nothing **_

_**Grasp fate with thine own hands and despair**_

Erebus stood before them.

It only had one head now, its upper head, but from its back were several coiling arms.

Every inch of its body was covered in hands, but the twelve limbs growing from its back extended to over eighteen feet each.

They rotated around its body, shifting position and slipping through the ground until it was ready.

"Fuuka…" Shinji growled, getting back to his feet as Marina slept. "You said this thing was done."

_~ I… I don't understand… ~_ she gasped. _~ I-It's the same thing, but… we have to do this again? That's just not fair! ~_

* * *

(/')

* * *

"Aw hell no…" I growled.

"What is it?" Mitsuru asked me.

"We need to get there faster." I told her, checking on Adachi. He was still out and still healing.

Why's it taking so long?

Blood Break. Of course they used Blood Break.

Why did I even give Minato that idea? It's been nothing but trouble.

Wait, so how is he healing?

Time to peek inside of Adachi… Ah, Hollow Arcana.

That idiot. I can use it much better than him.

I shoved my hand in and began to program the Arcana to rebuild his internal organs. It's something I got pretty good at over the years.

Well, was good at.

Can't do it anymore…

Well, I sure as hell can reprogram what He's got going.

"Mitsuru." I croaked. "I'm gonna get back to observing the battle. Tell Fuuka to ask Yukari about the Arcana meanings Minato told her and how they related to the old Arcana Shadows."

I leaned forward and closed my eyes, focusing on the battle as Mitsuru opened up her communicator.

I'm gonna need to get around to thinking of a better name for the Hollow Arcana. It really is more to that, but the grossly inaccurate name just stuck.

Oh, yeah, everyone's about to die.

* * *

(/')

* * *

"Yukiko." Seta ordered, drawing a blade from the scabbard on his back. "I set up a temporary medical centre in the TV World. Take the injured and use the trees inside to heal everyone. I want five people out of here at a time, so lead everyone inside."

_~ Yukari! ~_ Fuuka's voice rang. _~ Mitsuru's asking about something Minato told you about the Arcana Shadows representing the Arcana cards; she said you'd know what she meant? ~_

Seta looked up to see Chie's step-sister's eyes widen in shock, but quickly tighten in focus as she began to think.

"I want Chie, Yukari, that guy, and the kid for now." Seta decided, pointing at Jun and then Kenjamin. "Everyone else get in the TV."

Kenji ran to the electronics store, smashed the window and stuck his hand in the large 108-inch flatscreen. "COME ON!" he shouted. "Teddie, we'll need you to let us out!"

Everyone who hadn't been chosen to battle reluctantly ran to recuperate as Erebus began to set into its new form. Shinji picked Marina up onto his back and ran towards the rippling gateway to safety as Jun held his hand out for a weapon.

A katana formed in his hand from a black bubble. Jun raised an eyebrow, then formed a similar bubble around his eyes and smiled.

"What is it?" Kenjamin asked him.

"Help is on its way." Jun said, twirling the weapon around in his hand and getting into a stance. "When it gets here, make sure that a Magician Arcana is out here and that he puts a weapon where I'm waiting for it."

"Uh, okay…" Ken replied hesitantly, before glaring at his opponent and rolling to the side as a black hand smashed through where he was standing. "Dammit! Who here's seen Elfen Lied?"

"Don't remind me." Seta growled, summoning a card into his hand only to jump back to dodge the three hands bombarding his location. "Dammit! Yukari-san!"

"Uh, uh, Magician…" Yukari muttered, trying to remember something from a casual conversation almost five years ago while dodging extremely fast attacks from a far away opponent. "Magician, we fought him as a big pile of arms with swords, but He killed it so fast... Uh..."

"Come on miss." Jun told her, slicing through a limb only for several hands to burst out near the stump, like branches from a tree. "Damn!"

"The Arcana depicts a young man with a symbol of infinity, a trickster, though sometimes it's a powerful and assertive magician..." Yukari remembered as she dove over a limb and rolled on the street. "Represents Action... Initiative, Self-confidence, Manipulation and Power... GUH!" She recoiled in shock as a blackened hand whipped past her, blood spraying from her arm that was flying, severed, through the air.

"YUKARI!" Kenjamin shouted, slicing through a stabbing hand before running towards his ally.

"I'm fine!" Yukari shouted as the wings of Isis shielded her from the onslaught of arms, clutching at her own bleeding stump of an arm as it began to regenerate. "It's Reversed!" she shouted. "Last time it was Fool, or Nothing, but it was using martial arts and tactics against us! This one's supposed to be clever, but it's just standing there attacking us blindly! We need to charge in like idiots because it isn't going to do anything other than what it's doing right now!"

"Hope you're right." Seta growled, hunching behind his blade and charging forward blindly, side-stepping attacks and running forward towards the main body as he summoned a card in his hand. "_**IZANAGI-NO-OOKAMI!**_"

The white lancer burst from behind him, charging forward to create an opening through the mass of arms and a large hole in Erebus itself. "COME ON!" Seta shouted, slicing through the body with his own blade as he jumped through the hole, getting drenched in Ichor in the process. "DON'T STOP, JUST ATTACK!"

Jun and Ken didn't need to be told twice. In the small moment in which the myriad of limbs went limp, the two of them charged in with their blades and decimated the flesh as Seta turned around and summoned the card for Surtr. "RRAGH!" he shouted, crushing the card with his fist as he dragged it down. Flames burst from the ground, consuming the main body of Erebus. "Yukari-san, I need you to predict the next form it'll take. Rise-san, I need three substitutes up here, I'll leave that to you. Fuuka-san, please predict its attack pattern and tell us when to attack."

-^- _Right Senpai! -^-_

_~ Okay! Get ready to dodge! ~_

"On it." Yukari nodded, shaking her new right arm to loosen it up as she started thinking about what Minato did to predict the Priestess's form back on the train.

"You two, get back." Seta ordered a little after they had retreated to a safe distance as the area surrounding Erebus became a maelstrom of black flesh. "I'm Seta Souji. You?"

"Kenjamin Amada." Ken replied, before shaking his head. "No, just Ken. Or whatever."

"Jun Kurosu." Jun replied from behind his black hair. "Time manipulator."

Seta's eyebrows widened as Naoki, Kenji and Aigis ran towards the edge of the battle. "Alright, when Fuuka-san gives the signal, I want Brown-hair to charge in with us, but I want you two to stay back and attack its next form." Seta ordered.

"Understood." Aigis nodded as Kenji grunted and took his position.

_~ Alright, on three. ~_ Fuuka told them as the maelstrom began to subside. _~ One… Two… ~_

The four young men charged in right on Fuuka's cue, slicing through flesh as they charged through the twelve foot radius of death covered by the eighteen-foot arms, reaching the eye of the storm with relatively little injury.

Kenjamin, Jun and Seta stabbed into Erebus' chest as Kenji leapt into the air and drove his axe into the Shadow's head, splitting where its skull should be. The three other men pulled out their weapons and slammed their palms into the wounds, filling the Shadow with electricity, wind, and ice as Kenji rammed a fourth fist down Erebus' neck and filled the body with his Persona's flames.

An arm lashed out of the carnage, grabbing a lamppost and dragging Erebus's body towards it. The four men landed on the concrete as Erebus began to recover from its wounds.

Kenjamin put an Evoker to his head. "Kala-Nemi!" he shouted, summoning his Persona to cast a quick Mediarahan. Kenji called upon his Persona to cast Rakunda on Erebus while Jun cast Masukukaja on the team.

"Let's rock this shit." Seta grinned, smashing a card to summon Satan to rush Erebus.

The Darkness tossed it aside easily, but it provided the distraction needed for the team to charge. Seta ran for the wall, charging up the vertical surface as Kenji took the more direct route across the concrete floor, launching lightning at the darkness as a teleporting Jun slashed through the blades that came too close to either one of his teamates.

Seta leapt from the wall, spinning in the air and slashing through the Shadow's blind spot, splitting a hole in him for Kenjamin to land with an lightning-charged spear at point-blank range shoved into the body.

Seta and Kenjamin leapt back, Kenjamin keeping an open palm trained on the spear as the Shadow healed around it.

"TEAR!" Ken roared, dragging his arm to the ground as the spear became a shaft of lightning, splitting Erebus and the lamppost below it.

"Can I get a hell yeah?" Kenji asked, asking for an all-out attack.

Seta nodded with a smile, leading the charge.

* * *

(/')

* * *

I smirked.

They're all grown up now.

* * *

(/')

* * *

_~ Guys, it's going to transform again! ~_ Fuuka warned the team as they tore Erebus limb from limb. _~ If it becomes the Priestess Arcana, it'll use the terrain to fight you instead of doing it directly, so keep close! ~_

However, this was when the countless hands covering Erebus' flesh turned into palms and shoved everyone back, giving itself some space. The fighters were shoved nearly twenty feet away, but they quickly bolted up from the dirt to charge at the Shadow before -

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

- They were too late.

The arms began to fall like feathers moulting off a bird, or leaves from a tree in autumn.

_~ It's becoming Priestess now! ~_ Fuuka told everyone. _~ Get ready; because the fight's about to completely change again! ~_

_**The heart knows nothing**_

_**Heed not its words and take what thy hands desire**_

Once the hands fell, Erebus stood there, split vertically down the centre, the right side white and the left black. Its lower jawbone led to two horns, as before, but its head was a cylinder above the jaw, rising a foot before capping like a top hat.

_~ Alright everyone. ~_ Fuuka explained as Erebus raised its white right hand and considered it _~ It's going to attack from behind. Don't use ice attacks, so get ready to dodge and counter with other ranged attacks. ~_

"Axe, Jun-san, get into the TV and get Yukiko." Seta ordered as a white disc with a blue edge appeared on a wall near Erebus. "Fuuka-san, what's the Shadow doi-"

Erebus shoved its hand into the portal.

And Fuuka screamed.

Then her screams grew muffled, as if she was being strangled.

Wait…

Aw hell no.

Kenjamin charged forward and sliced off Erebus' arm, pulling the dismembered arm out of the portal and prising the fingers from Fuuka's throat as Naoki tackled the Darkness before it could attack Kenjamin.

Seta and Aigis charged after them as Kenjamin wrenched the forearm from Fuuka and tossed it aside as Naoki disappeared into a portal atop Erebus.

_~ W-Wait! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ Naoki-kun's about to fall to his death! Aigis, move three metres to your left and catch him! ~_

Aigis did as instructed, then charged to a building and rebounded from the wall to catch the falling Demi-Fiend, crashing against the concrete floor as they landed. "Thanks." He grunted, getting to his feet.

The portal in front of the Erebus vanished, and its arm regenerated. The beast stood before them, raising an arm as if to challenge them.

_~ Be very careful. ~_ Fuuka warned everyone. _~ I don't think it can make portals in the air, or inside things, but it created a portal on itself leading to a forty-storey window to counter Naoki-kun's attack! ~ _

"Great…" Kenjamin groaned as he cricked his neck, spinning his warscythe above his head. "So, grey-hair. Got any plans?"

Seta's eyes tightened in focus. Portals were tricky in themselves, but it can create them where it can't see _and_ on itself?

Surprise attacks are the only way to go.

He raised his hand and tugged on his collar.

**DAKKA**

Erebus' head exploded.

"NOW!" Seta shouted, gripping his katana and charging at the Shadow, slicing it in half as Aigis unleashed a hail of bullets. Naoki burst in and tore Erebus limb from limb, and Kenjamin charged up a railgun around his warscythe, turning around and launching it at the origin of the sniper's shot.

Erebus sunk into a portal under his feet, reappearing atop a building where it found an abandoned Bolter on a tripod, then got torn apart by Kenjamin's attack.

_~ Nice Ken-kun! ~_ Fuuka shouted as Aigis and Naoki pursued Erebus to the top of the building it was on. _~ Great shot! ~_

Kenjamin held his arm out as a metal pipe flew into his arm and was crushed into a pole with a sharp spike at the end. "We need it to come back." He told Seta as Yukiko vaulted from the TV and ran over to the two. "Because unlike those two, we can't run up walls."

~_ You can though Ken-kun. ~ _Fuuka reminded him. _~ Remember? By building up static electricity between your feet and the surface you want to climb! ~_

Kenjamin looked to one side, muttering something as Seta raised an eyebrow. "How long have you guys been using your Persona's then?" The older asked his senpai.

"About five, six years now?" Kenjamin shrugged. "You?"

"About three." Seta replied. "So that's why you're so much better than me."

"Well, to be fair I got most of this power within one year." Kenjamin admitted, watching Naoki and Aigis take on Erebus on the rooftops. "Rest of it was practice."

"Same." Seta nodded, glancing around.

He smiled, then tugged at his collar again.

**DAKKADAKKADAKKA**

Erebus exploded into a mass of flesh and ichor. "What is that?" Yukiko asked Seta in shock.

"Naoto's brother left her a large armoury when he died." Seta explained. "Of course, she didn't know about this until after we solved the case, but she's become a pretty decent sniper- Yukiko?"

He heard the scream as Yukiko was thrown violently towards him, and he rushed forward and summoned Kohryu to swallow her in its jaw. She passed through its smoky body slowly and safely as Kenjamin charged across the street and up the wall towards the battle between Erebus, Naoki and Aigis. "Fuuka, fill everyone in on names." Kenjamin told her, charging the electricity around his metal spear. "And tell Seta-san to get his sniper more involved."

_~ Alright Ken-kun. ~_

"It's Kenjamin Armada." Ken grinned to himself as he leapt onto the rooftop, spinning the spear above his head with a roar of fury as he slammed the spear onto the monster's top hat with a mighty lunge.

A portal appeared at the end of his hat, and again on the side, and the spear stabbed through Kenjamin's gut. The teenage boy's battle cry turned into a scream of agony as blood exploded from his back- a fanfare to precede the metal that followed through the flesh.

"KEN!" Naoki shouted, taking advantage of the situation to stab his hands into Erebus' chest and tear it in two. "You okay?"

"Yeah…" Ken groaned, pushing the spear all the way through his torso as he began healing. "Shit… I'm tapping out."

"Be more careful." Aigis warned him, picking him up and leaping back onto another rooftop, this time on a building with a large television screen on the wall. A stone staircase spiralled out of it as Shinji ran out of the screen and onto the rooftop. "Ken! What the hell?"

"I'm fine…" Kenjamin grunted, clutching his bleeding gut as he hobbled to the staircase. "Monster's regenerating it, so I'll leave it to you-WHOA."

Shinji watched the boy who was practically a younger brother to him slip through a portal created in the staircase and begin falling from the rooftop. "KEN!" he shouted, running to the ledge.

Kenjamin grunted, spinning in the air to ram a hand through the glass of the oversized TV screen, screaming as glass tore at his flesh as he gripped onto wires to slow his fall, only stopping as he grabbed the bottom ledge of the massive screen. "Mother…" Kenjamin grunted, though his face looked like the next word in his head was not one of thanks.

He hoisted himself up into the broken structure as a portal appeared on the ground under his feet. He slipped past Erebus, coming out onto a rooftop as Naoki skidded to stop his attack, but not before his fist smashed right into Kenjamin's wound. "CRAP!" The Demi-Fiend shouted. "You okay?"

"No…" Ken grunted, gripping his side with one hand as blood pooled into his palm. "That's it… I've had it with this shit…"

He forced himself to his feet as Erebus leapt out of a portal onto the street. "He wants to play with Portals..?" he grunted, energy circling under his feet as he raised a hand into the air and summoned a card.

He span it, and crushed it in his hand.

"_**Then let's play with portals.**_"

Kenjamin slipped into a wormhole under his feet, reappearing at ground level behind Erebus, slipping two torn, bloodied hands around the Shadow's arms and waist. "_**You will be baked,**_" Kenjamin told it with an evil smile, black and gold lines forming across his skin as wind blew his hair and clothes around him. "_**And there will be cake.**_"

He leaned back, suplexing the Shadow back into the portal before collapsing onto the concrete. The Shadow shot out of the other end as the portal closed, making a perfect target for Naoki's flying superman punch, smashing the Shadow in the face and into the roof. Violently.

Seta and Yukiko rushed over to the bleeding, broken Kenjamin. "Hey, think one of you can carry me to the TV and shove me in?" he asked, completely drained of power.

"Alright." Yukiko nodded, quickly healing as much of his wounds as she could before hoisting the teenage boy over her shoulder and running to the electronics store. "I thought you'd be heavier."

"You're fighting with Personae now…" Kenjamin grinned despite his exhaustion. "Summoning it is one thing, but once you actually start using it…"

She carefully carried him into the TV where she hoped someone else would take care of him, before tugging off her bloodstained sweater and running back into the fight in her blouse.

"Alright." Shinji sighed to himself once his 'brother' was safe, creating an axe out of concrete as he did so. "Let's kick some ass."

He stepped forward only to fall through a portal under his feet, reappearing at the bottom of the skyscraper, falling upwards through momentum before falling downwards thanks to gravity. "Son of a…" he grunted, getting to his feet as he rubbed his back.

Erebus reformed before him and plunged both its hands into a portal on the ground, grabbing Seta by the ankles and dragging him up to throw at Shinji, who backhanded the Fool and charged regardless, swinging his axe as Erebus ducked back into another portal.

Yukari felt two arms seize her from behind and she lurched forward, slamming Erebus on the ground before her only for it to disappear into a portal. She twisted around and dodged as it came at her from above, then jumped back as it came from below, pointing her Evoker to her head as the Shadow came for her. "ISIS!"

**BLAM**

The Garu spell followed through the portal, striking Erebus as it dodged. _~ Of course! ~ _Fuuka realised. ~ _Even if it dodges through portals, we can still attack through them when it travels through itself! ~_

"Of course, there's still the problem of our attacks still coming out the other side." Shinji warned everyone as Naoki and Aigis landed on the street. "Careful."

Seta quickly cast Diarahan on himself to heal his broken bones, then got his sword ready as Erebus burst from a portal and leapt into the air. "LOKI!" He shouted, smashing a card to summon the trickster god to cast Niflheim on Erebus.

"How's that gonna help?" Naoki asked with a grunt. "It's immune to ice, remember?"

"Just watch." Seta replied, as Erebus opened a portal on the ice and stepped into it.

Parts of the Darkness slid out of various refracted fragments of the exit portal around the ice structure. ~ _I get it! ~_ Fuuka announced as Erebus began to reform. _~ Because its vision is fragmented, then so is its destination target! ~_

"Next time it'll just punch through though." Seta grumbled. "Alright, it can only create two portals at once, and they lead to each other. It can only create them on surfaces, and it can't chop you in half with them. Problem is, how do we use that?"

"Easy." Shinji announced as the reformed Erebus cricked its neck. "Attack from all sides faster than it can handle. Give it more than it can give back. Sure, we'll lose a few arms." He shrugged as the Darkness created a new portal near a wall. "Maybe a couple of us will die, but you got a better idea?"

_~ Um, why don't you just trap the portal so the Shadow can't make a new one? ~_ Fuuka suggested. _~ If that's its only mode of attack, then what have you got to be afraid of then? ~_

A pillar of stone immediately burst from the ground and curved into the portal, coming out the other end to lift Shinji into the air faster than Erebus could shove its hand into it.

Shinji grinned menacingly, looking down the portal to see his enemy on the other side.

He dropped his axe.

It flew out of the first portal, tearing the head from Erebus' shoulders.

"Well, now this is a load of fun." Shinji announced with a grin pulling an Evoker from his pocket and putting it to his jaw as the headless corpse of the Shadow fell to its knees. "Atlas, let's take 'im down."

The portal vanished. Devoid of its support, the stone totem wobbled and fell slowly. Shinji hopped off the top as it slammed into the pavement, landing on the ground as the blackness spread across the white half of Erebus' body as a round head grew from its shoulders.

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

Its head opened into one wide, orange and black eye that covered the entire face. The earth shook as the Shadow rose from the ground, a massive spherical belly forming under its waist.

Erebus' new form was over ten feet tall.

_**The Home means nothing**_

_**Parents… Siblings… Children… all exist to steal thy dreams**_

Naoki smirked.

"What's so funny?" Seta asked him.

"Yo Mamma's so fat." He replied.

"Snrk." Yukiko snickered, before bending over into a full laughing fit.

_~ LOOK OUT! ~ _Fuuka screamed._  
_

_**FWOOSH**_

Yukiko was gone.

A smoking crater remained.

~ _A- A beam came out of the Shadows' mouth… ~_ Fuuka gasped. _~ S-She… ~_

"Yukiko…" Seta whispered, dropping his sword, his face slack and sweat dripping down his neck.

_~ It's charging up another attack! ~_ Fuuka cried. _~ RUN! ~_

"Damn!" Naoki grunted, picking up Seta and running as a white energy blast consumed the spot where they were previously just standing. "Shinji! Got any plans?"

"YEAH! TONS!" Shinji shouted, jumping backwards as another blast almost consumed him. "Shit, FUUKA!"

_~ Its shape is reminiscent of the Empress Arcana__, but that's where the similarities end! ~_ Fuuka shouted as Erebus began to charge another attack. _~ I can't figure out the element of its attack, its weakness, or even- ~_ She stopped dead with a sharp intake of breath. _~ YUKIKO-SAN'S STILL ALIVE! ~_

Seta's dead eyes flashed with determination. "What was that?"

_~ It's not an attack! ~_ Fuuka shouted as everyone dodged the not attack in question. _~ The beam is like a portal, but leading into Erebus' stomach! If you cut that open you can pull her out! ~_

"That's my job." Naoki grinned. "You three distract it, I'll tear it a new one."

"I've got a sword." Seta pointed out. "I think it can cut flesh better than your hands."

"Well, when your sword can tear Satan in half, you can be the hero." Naoki told him, sprinting towards the Shadow. "Until then, stay the hell out of my way."

Seta scowled, but reset his face to accommodate the new mission, and made a point of making himself as distracting as possible. "Izanagi-No-Ookami!" he shouted, summoning a card in his hand and calling upon the creator god. "Ziodyne!"

Lightning cracked from the sky and struck Erebus as Aigis ran around the bulbous Shadow, peppering it with bullets around the head. After all the work that had gone into attacking a human-sized target that kept teleporting, fighting the less-than mobile behemoth was a much easier option, especially as Shinji created a stone cage to keep it trapped as Naoki bounded onto its stomach. The Demi-Fiend reared back and plunged his palms within its flesh, tearing its stomach open like a pair of very uncooperative curtains.

He grunted, grinding his teeth together in determination as he kept the hole wide. "Come on… come on…"

Yukiko ran through the gap, drenched head to foot in the black ichor. "Oh this is…" she complained as she flicked the foul gunk from her arms. Shuddering out of disgust, her eyes narrowed and a glowing card appeared before her. She smashed the card with a shout, summoning Amaterasu and launching holy flames into Erebus' stomach, boiling it from within as Naoki leapt back, allowing the burning wound to seal shut, trapping the flames within.

_~ Hold on… EVERYONE! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ Get back and stop attacking! ~_

They did as they were told, retreating to a safe distance and watching Erebus as its stomach began to bulge around the pillars Shinji had made to trap the Shadow, the flesh inflating as smoke filled it from within.

"That can not be how science works…" Naoki muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Irrelevant." Aigis told everyone, closing the muzzles on her fingertips as her white hands returned to a skin tone. "I recommend finding cover, because this is going to get messy."

Everyone took one look at Yukiko and legged it into the nearest alley.

**BANG**

Hot ichor filled the street, ricocheting of the alley wall and landing on the party's faces. The screens in the TV shop had been completely overturned by the explosion of liquid and flesh, and all the street walls windows had been completely caked in the matter.

_~ Guys, it's rebuilding itself. ~_ Fuuka warned as Erebus began to re-inflate itself from a larger puddle of ichor. _~ I've told Rise to lead everyone in finding a new place to use as our exchange zone until we can use the TV store again, but for now you need to keep killing it over and over again like before! ~_

"This is always the plan, isn't it?" Shinji asked, tearing a set of traffic lights from the ground and swinging it around. "Kill it and kill it and keep on killing it until it falls down."

"If it is not broken, then there is no need to fix it." Aigis stated, loading her fingertips, before shaking her head and clenching her hands into fists as much wider shotgun muzzles protruded from her forearms. "As they say, there is no such thing as overkill, just making sure that it stays dead."

"You know, you guys are fun." Yukiko complimented, incinerating the worst of the slime that wasn't already stained into her clothes, skin or hair. "We mostly solved a murder case and saved kidnapped teenagers."

"Really?" Aigis asked her. "We killed things. Mostly."

"Which we really should be getting back to." Shinji grunted. "Naoki, rush over to the TV and tag someone. Those leaves'll do you a world of good and we need fresh blood because leader boy's getting tired."

"Most of our battles were shorter than this." Seta admitted. "Rise, get Yosuke and Chie ready."

-^- Okay senpai! -^- she shouted as Naoki sprinted across the street.

Seta moved to follow him. "Aigis-san, I'm leaving it to you."

"All right." Aigis nodded, stepping out into the street with Yukiko and Shinji. "Yukari-san, fire."

_**DRAKKOOM**_

Erebus was consumed by an explosion of green wind fed the exploding shrapnel. Everyone looked over to the rooftops where Yukari was standing with a Heavy Bolter with two powerful green sickles of energy bursting from the top and bottom of the muzzle.

The Darkness screamed as it reformed, having been burnt and decimated by the wind-infused bolt that had torn into it from seemingly nowhere. It turned in fury towards Yukari and began to charge its next attack.

"YUKARI!" Shinji shouted, only to be stopped by Aigis. "What?"

_THUNK_

Silence fell as the massive Bolt entered the chamber.

"Minato used those weapons." Shinji remembered. "Weren't they designed with a rapid fire option?"

"Now you may run." Aigis told him, turning away from the Shadow and fleeing for her life as Yukari became an angel of death and cruelty, carrying a message from heaven for the undying heathen abomination below.

Erebus launched its all-devouring blast of energy.

**DRAKKA DRAKKA DRAKKA DRAKKA DRAKKA DRAKKA**_**OOM!**_

**It didn't stand a chance.**

* * *

(/')

* * *

"May I ask you something?" Mitsuru asked, pulling me from the destruction and back to the bike. "How is He doing?"

"For a dead guy?" I asked her. "Depends. Did you learn anything in the Abyss of Time?"

She lowered her head inside her helmet. "He became the Great Seal to stop the collective despair of mankind from summoning Nyx, didn't he?" she asked.

I closed my eyes again. "The burden is lighter nowadays. Other than that, same as ever."

Mitsuru nodded. "I see." She told herself. "Thank you. Just one more thing."

"Last question." I told her with a slight smile.

"Did He ever regret it?"

I opened my eyes again.

Then I closed them.

How was she to know?

I decided just to answer the question and get back to watching the battle.

"I am those regrets."

* * *

(/')

* * *

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

Erebus rose from the Ichor-filled crater, a powerful suit of European armour made from bone with a billowing cape, wide pointed horns on its helmet, a massive white javelin in its left hand while a massive shield sat on its right arm, a longbow in its hand

_**Authority is worth nothing**_

_**The responsibility of a kingdom chains the desires of a king till he is but a puppet for his masters… his people**_

"We cannot make any pre-judgements on its power or abilities." Aigis warned everyone as Yosuke and Chie joined the group. "Most importantly, there is an abnormal chance of this form being incredibly quick and agile, so everybody spread out."

As it turned out, Aigis was exactly right in her strategy, as a powerful spinning spike pierced her side as Erebus blitzed into her space. She was knocked back with incredible force as her right ribcage was shattered by the devastating attack.

She quickly morphed her torso into its mechanical form to prevent the damage affecting her battle capacity too adversely, then grabbed forward and jammed her hand into the crack between Erebus' chestplate and helmet. Point-blank, she blasted a cartridge of shot inside the armour, shredding the Shadow flesh inside.

The Shadow reeled back and Aigis rushed back to a safe distance and began to heal her wound systematically, morphing a small segment of metal to flesh then quickly healing it before moving onto the next section.

"It's important not to attack while it's regenerating." Aigis explained to everyone as she did this, remembering the experiments she and Metis had conducted in the Abyss of time. "A Shadow has a pre-set amount of damage it can take before it dies, no matter how many times you destroy its body. However, while it is regenerating from a situation that was otherwise dead, anything we do to interrupt this process only delays its return- it does nothing to the end goal of destroying it."

The missing part of her lung was impossible to restore, but she managed to close it off before Erebus completed its regeneration. "Also, remember that Dia cannot restore damage done to organs." Aigis continued. "Yukari-san managed to develop a technique to recover this kind of damage, but she cannot perform that kind of surgery this early into the battle."

"This early?" Yosuke asked, not taking his eyes off the armour as it decided between targets. "How far in are we?"

"We're either a third of the way in, or half that." Shinji warned. "Depends if it stops at Death like Erebus did last time, or at World like Nyx."

"Uh, what're we talking about?" Chie asked.

"Death… World…" Yukiko's eyes widened in realisation. "Wait, it's not going through the stages of the Arcana, is it?"

"Got it in one." Shinji nodded. "Right now its on Emperor, four out of twenty one, not counting the Fool form we fought first."

"Aha… you gotta be kidding me…" Chie chuckled sheepishly, glancing around at her companions. "Guys..?"

A blur of darkness descended onto her, bearing a white lance of bone driving forward.

SHLUCK.

"_**CHIE!**_"

Yosuke ran towards the Shadow, leaping into the air and stabbing his two shortswords down the cracks between its helmet and armour, forcing it away from Chie as Shinji pulverised the Shadow with an axe the size of a concrete pavement slab. Yosuke only let go to catch Chie as she slid off the spinning drill of bone the Shadow was wielding.

"Chie…" Yosuke gasped, cradling her. Blood seeped into his fingers as her arm dangled uselessly to his knee. Her shoulder was completely gone. The lower part of her right ribcage was visible. The remains major veins and air tracts were holes in the otherwise cauterized flesh.

Half of her throat was missing, and blood was steadily being pumped by her failing heart, flowing onto the young man.

She tried to say something.

But the air from her remaining lung wouldn't form into sound, only flowing out the side of what was once her voice box.

"Chie…" Yosuke gasped as her head flopped back. "Chie…"

"MOVE!" Yukari shouted, pushing Yosuke back and laying her stepsister on the ground with unseeing eyes of iron will and determination. "Kill it." She ordered, moving her hands around Chie to block the open blood vessels and regenerating something resembling a voice box.

Yosuke staggered back in horror. This wasn't happening…

This was not happening.

But it was.

It is happening.

And Yukari isn't going to save her in time.

"Y-you can save her right?" Yosuke asked, completely oblivious to the battle going on just feet away from the carnage that consumed his mind. "She's gonna be okay… right..?"

But he knew.

Personae couldn't raise the dead.

"No…" he gasped as the black clouds in the white sky began to circle. "No no **no no **_**no no NO!**_"

Lightning fell, striking Yosuke.

He burst into flame as winds tore around him.

Eight serpents of flame rose around Yosuke, twisting around him to form a great flaming cyclone of hate.

_**THE RAGE OF THY SOUL SCREAMS FOR VENGENCE**_

_**BLOOD OF THE FALLEN CRIES FROM THE EARTH**_

_**THE STORM ANSWERS**_

Susano-o rose out of the cyclone, his spinning saw blades whipping up the flaming hurricane into a greater storm as the flames of his hair billowed ominously.

_**THE BESERKER OF THY SOUL HAST GIVEN RISE TO A NEW PERSONA**_

The flames consumed Susano-o. Yosuke screamed with pain and hate as lightning struck the typhoon and it exploded. Floating there was an armoured monster, blood red armour with white cloth, which stood there with a great sword- a spiked belt that circled around the blade.

Black flames rose from the head and the mask of this new Persona. A massive ring of lightning encircled it, whipping up storms with the speed of its rotation alone.

_**SUSANO-O HAS GIVEN WAY TO SUSANOO NO MIKOTO**_

_~ EVERYONE! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ GET BACK! ~_

Shinji, Yukiko and Aigis leapt back from the armoured Shadow as Yosuke turned towards it slowly, his face expressionless, but his body screaming of hate.

Yosuke raised a hand towards Erebus.

His Persona charged.

The whip of the gods cracked the sky- a sonic boom to herald the wrath of the storm god.

Erebus raised its blade to defend itself, blocking the Persona's powerful blade swing for its head.

Yosuke burst in and rammed a blade of burning lightning through the gap in the Shadow's armour, wrenching its head from its neck.

_~ He's gone Berserker! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ B-But he's projecting as well! It's like how Junpei was when Chidori died, and how Minato was when the Lover's controlled him, but both at the same time! ~_

"Shit…" Shinji gasped, watching as the maddened Yosuke decimated the Shadow. "That bad?"

_~ If we don't stop him, he'll die! ~_ Fuuka shouted.

_-^- But Chie's probably the only one with a chance… -^- _Rise told her. _-^- How is she? -^-_

Yukari was still furiously trying to perform impossible surgery as the patient- her sister- was loosing more blood by the second, but more worrying, the blood was pumping out at a slower rate.

Chie's heart was giving out.

Yukiko abandoned trying to battle, rushing over to her friend.

It had never occurred to her before that they would ever suffer a wound too great for a quick Diarahan to fix.

But she could see it.

She was seeing what Yosuke was seeing.

Chie was -

Yukari slapped her.

"We can save her." Yukari snarled at the younger girl. "Focus and do what I tell you."

_**KRAKOOOMM**_

Erebus flew over the three girls and smashed into a building. Yukiko and Yukari turned to see Yosuke float into the air with his arms outstretched. "_**So, here I am.**_" Yosuke said, though it was not his voice. "_**A pathetic loser who is never good enough. Yosuke, that joker, living off his dad, never doing anything for himself. Always relying on others, getting everyone into trouble.**_"

"_**TO HELL WITH THAT SHIT!**_"

Lightning tore the sky in half as it began to rain heavily. _~ Oh no… ~ _Fuuka gasped_. ~ This really isn't good… ~_

"Fuuka-san." Aigis said quietly as Yosuke rose into the air, summoning lightning and flames to torture the armoured Shadow. "What will Yosuke-san do when the Shadow is no more?"

_~ He- he doesn't care anymore… ~_ Fuuka whispered. _~ He doesn't care about who he hurts, so long as he's not the only one… ~_

Aigis nodded. "Fuuka-san." She said. "Prepare Oracle."

* * *

(/')

* * *

I opened my eyes. "Oh shit this is not good."

"How bad?" Mitsuru asked.

"Fuuka's about to nuke Yosuke because he's gone berserk."

"What?" Mitsuru asked, snapping her head around. "Are you sure?"

"It's bad." I told her, glancing at the side car to check on Adachi. "I'm gonna have to speed this thing up."

I rested my hand onto the engine and rebuilt in on the fly.

The bike's blitzed past its max speed as it harshly accelerated.

If I'm lucky, I'll be able to save them both.

* * *

(/')

* * *

_~ Oracle, standing by. ~_

"Are you insane?" Shinji shouted. "That's a kid we're about to kill!"

"We have no other choice." Aigis replied, watching the god of death that was Yosuke Hanamura _play_ with Erebus. "He's not himself anymore. We can't save him."

"**YOSUKE HANAMURA!**"

He stopped mid-punch as his eyes connected with the dark-haired woman standing outside the electronics shop.

"**Cease.**" She ordered, blue flames swirling around her as a woman appeared above her head. "**Calm down, do not kill yourself.**"

The flames around Yosuke died as the armour of his Persona burnt out and faded.

Yosuke fell to his knees, fainting.

"Thanks Rio…" Kenji gasped, catching his breath. "Alright, get the injured inside there now! Rio, you too."

"Hold on!" She shouted. "Why can't I fight?"

Kenji pressed a hand on her stomach. "Please." He told her as Shinji rushed forward to grab Yosuke as Yukiko and Yukari carried Chie over into the TV. "Before it gets back up."

"Fuuka-san." Aigis declared. "Launch Oracle."

_~ Alright. ~_

A bright star appeared in the sky and descended onto the city.

It exploded.

Chie choked a new breath just as she was about to be carried into the TV.

"Chie!" Yukiko gasped with a smile, hesitating to push her through.

"She's breathing, but that's only a start." Yukari told her. "Hurry!"

"Chie-chan…" Teddie smiled.

There was an unearthly roar, and the Shadow stood once more. "Shit." Shinji growled, tossing the comatose Yosuke into the TV. "ATLAS!" he shouted, putting the gun to his brow and pulling the trigger. The titan floated in the air as a myriad of stone pillars became a webbed cage for Erebus, trapping it in its crater as Aigis and Koromaru summoned Athena and Cerberus respectively, one to rain firepower upon the beast, the other to unleash hell.

Erebus screamed as Naoto burst onto the scene, firing at the beast with a Bolter as Teddie rubbed a block of ice through his hair before unleashing a pack of ice bears to zerg rush Erebus.

Most were destroyed by the wave of spikes that burst from its armour as it leapt free, but one particularly resilient beast smashed into its chest, launching it into a building where Jun teleported onto its shoulders, tearing off its helmet and launching a burst of flame into its insides.

Jun leapt back and caught the spike that would have split his head in two, carrying it down as Erebus regenerated, then fell to the ground as Shinji, Teddie and Kenji charged and grabbed the Shadow, holding it in place as Naoto charged in and riddled its body with bolter fire at point-blank range.

_**DAKKADAKKADAKKA**_

Naoto didn't flinch as ichor flew into her face.

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

"NOW!" Kenji shouted as Teddie, Koromaru and Naoto rushed back. The suit of armour dissolved into ash, leaving the claymore embedded into the ground.

From the claymore, a tree grew. Its branches spread out as a truck widened around the blade. The bark was black and covered in thorns, but there was no fruit or leaves on the tree.

_**Hope yields nothing**_

_**Wishes exist only to stop the weak from achieving their goals by their own hands**_

"So, Hierophant is a tree." Naoto said, changing a clip on her Bolter. "Of course, it won't be that easy."

"Alright Aigis, you're in control here." Shinji pointed out.

"Understood." She nodded. "Jun-san, I'm handing control of the party to you."

"Right." The florist nodded, swinging his katana. "The branches and thorns are reminiscent of the Acacia plant, used in Freemasonry to symbolise purity, endurance of the soul, as well as resurrection and immortality." He tightened his glare. "Some theories suggest it was also the burning bush from the story of Moses, so expect a long battle with fire and spikes."

"Finally, a useful prediction." Shinji grinned, creating a large concrete axe. "Alright let's do this."

He lifted his arm to summon a wall of cement to block the spiked branch that lashed out at him. "Hey, kid was right!" he laughed, vaulting over the wall and chopping through the branch as it curved to stab him.

Koromaru howled and created a ring of fire around the party and the tree as Kenji charged forward to the tree with his axe. Naoto and Aigis circled Erebus' trunk and opened fire on the Shadow. The purpose was to inflict as much indiscriminate damage to this new form while it was only attacking with branches, hoping to force the Shadow into its next form before it thought of any new tricks.

Jun dropped three roses into the ground and, summoning his Persona, Chronos, he hyper-aged them as he had practiced for years, bending time around them as they grew into three powerful writhing spiked trunks that grew towards the tree, choking it and limiting its movements.

_~ It's about to sprout fruit! ~_ Fuuka warned everyone as large apples began to grow on the branches, growing and splitting into somewhat humanoid monster Shadows of the Hierophant Arcana. _~ Smaller Shadows! Be careful, I'll scan them for weaknesses! ~_

_-^- The smaller Shadows are weak to Dark attacks! -^- _Rise shouted as the first Shadow landed. _-^- Naoto, Koro-chan, gettem! -^-_

Koromaru howled and a purple seal blocked the Shadow, before obliterating it in black flame. Naoto's bolter developed a similar glowing circle around the muzzle, and she began picking off the apples from the branches, destroying them before they could land as Koromaru's Persona Fenrir took care of those that she couldn't manage to get.

A dark green mist began to ooze from the roots as Shinji and Kenji hacked at the trunk. _~ Get back you two! ~_ Fuuka warned. _~ It's using a mix of Stagnant Air and Poison Mist to poison you! ~ _

The two of them immediately leapt backwards and Aigis charged in, drawing out a scroll from a compartment on her side and unfurling it, drawing a chainsword and swinging it into the trunk of the Erebus tree.

"Everyone!" she shouted, tossing a second scroll towards Shinji as Kenji caught the first. "There are some gas masks in that scroll!"

Shinji immediately unfurled the scroll further until he found the appropriate slot and pulled out several masks and passed them about. "Sorry Koromaru." He chuckled, donning his own mask. "_They don't come in Dog size."_

Koromaru whimpered, then hopped back to a safer distance. Shinji rolled his scroll up and took the chain-axe Kenji was offering. "_Not bad…"_ He chuckled, swinging the weapon to test its weight and roar. "_Not bad at all."_

A spear of ice stabbed from the ground, tearing the tree from its roots and forcing it into the air. Aigis jumped back as it began to roll down the frozen slope, losing its rigid form and devolving into a mass of tentacle-like roots and branches.

Teddie burst from the sewers. "It was taking energy from the power grid." He explained, launching another blast of ice at the Shadow as it began to root itself again. "We _bearly_ stood a chance of taking it down that way."

_~ Nice work! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ I'm sorry everyone, I was just so distracted- ~_

"_It's fine."_ Naoto interrupted. "_Just keep helping us like before."_

Koromaru whimpered, but shook his head defiantly as Shinji tossed him a Dis-poison to heal the infection. Koromaru barked and retreated to a safe distance- being the only one left in the group that was still able to get poisoned through air.

Erebus launched a wave of spiked branches at the group, but Aigis and Kenji slashed through them with their roaring chain-weapons. Shinji and Jun both circled around the Shadow, creating a powerful net of wood and stone to keep it trapped. Koromaru howled, and Fenrir loomed over the Shadow as chains burst from the ground to incarcerate the Shadow further.

Naoto unfurled an A3 sheet of OLED paper and pulled a large Boltgun from it. As the paper was, in effect, a television screen, there was nothing preventing her from using it to place weaponry in the TV world through it and drawing it out through the same manner.

The trick, however, was making sure that when she reached in, the weapon was where she needed it to be, as an instant portal into the TV world is worthless unless the equipment moved with you.

That was where all that practice with using Yamato-Takeru as a separate being paid off. So long as she opened the screen at exactly the correct position, then her Persona could bring her any weapon from her armoury at any point.

Her Persona could also rise from the screen carrying a Bolter of his own.

Naoto grinned.

This was worth it just for the feeling of a brilliant plan coming together.

Even if it made the old scar above her eyebrow bleed.

_**DAKKADAKKADAKKA**_

* * *

(/')

* * *

I laughed.

She really is His sister.

* * *

(/')

* * *

Under the weight of the destruction raining down upon it, the Tree of Darkness shattered, splintered… and was reborn.

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

A thin, spindly branch crawled out of the gaps between the trap laid for Erebus, and two branches, well, branched out and two humanoid beings grew from them.

_**Choice means nothing**_

_**None are free to control their fate to an absolute**_

The two beings were jet black and made out of solidified smoke.

One was clearly male, with a lower jawbone around the mouth, the bone leading into two horns, as Erebus' upper head had. The body was muscular, well built with wide shoulders, but with two red orbs where the eyes should be.

The second took the form of a woman with an hourglass figure. It had long black hair that fell in down its back and its chest, covering the head completely. At the pelvis was a large lower jawbone, with two horns at the back leading forward, as if there was a tusk at each hip.

"A man, a woman and a tree." Shinji laughed, taking off his mask so he could breathe better. "No need to predict _that_."

In that instant, Shinjiro Aragaki saw a thousand futures, and died a thousand times.

He felt a thousand different decisions these two Shadows could make that would result in his death on their next move.

"So that's their game." Naoto said. "They're offering a thousand different choices, but only one of them is the right one."

"Get it right, we can block their attack." Kenji nodded.

"Get it wrong, and we die." Aigis finished.

"But which one?" Teddie asked. "I mean, our actual situation is no different to how it was _before_ they showed us that, but…"

"Psychological warfare." Naoto nodded. "They know what they're going to do, but now that we're questioning it, we cannot ignore what they've shown us even though it is of no use to us."

"So, what do we do?" Shinji asked.

Jun stepped forward and slashed his blade once, then twice.

The two Shadows fell as they rushed past him, cut in half diagonally by his attack.

"My Persona taught me to see that a long time ago." Jun explained to everyone as the Shadows began to reform. "I know what the future holds."

He readied his sword and turned to face his opponents. "Come." He told them as Koromaru howled a ring of flame to encircle them.

Right now, the world existed only of these two halves of Erebus, and Jun Kurosu.

They got to their feet and began to circle him in the flames as rain fell from the sky. Jun narrowed his gaze to stop the water and his hair from getting into his eyes.

For all his bravado, he knew this was going to be tough.

But those kids couldn't deal with this.

Not when they were spooked by the ghosts of the future like that.

Jun smiled.

Tatsuya would have known what to do.

He raised his left hand and caught a second sword that appeared through a hole in time. It was exactly like the one in his right, only slightly more worn.

Time travel was great once you realised that the universe didn't care about the odd paradox or two.

He held the two blades akimbo. "COME ON THEN!" He roared, watching the ripples in time closely.

His movements were like a very short, very precise dance, to the music of time itself.

Two bodies exploded into a rain of blood, and two bodies fell into the puddles amongst the flames.

Jun wiped Ichor from his eyes and waited for his enemies to return to their feet.

They forced themselves up, and Jun rushed to the male, beheading it before stabbing back into the female. It reached forward after he penetrated its heart, so he swung the blade through the flesh and swung again with the other to kill.

He kicked it down and slashed the two blades vertically down the male, slicing it into thirds. The female rose as the male fell, and Jun swung with his swords to take her down as the male got up.

Jun could see a future of himself overcome by weariness, and jumped back to allow both his enemies to rise.

He summoned a card before him and slashed it with his blade. "CHRONOS!" he shouted, summoning the father of time to cast Cross Fortune upon the two.

Summoning his Persona took less energy than swinging two heavy blades.

Tatsuya makes it look so easy.

Jun smiled.

He reversed the grip of his two blades and stepped forward while quickly ducking- slicing through the two charging Shadows.

He grunted in pain as he felt blood escape from two new wounds on each side.

He flicked his hair back as he turned to face his regenerating opponents.

He doesn't have the luxury of making mistakes.

Nor time to heal.

He stabbed his two blades into the concrete and flipped over the charging Shadows, but the blades slipped on the wet surface and he fell onto his back, the two weapons skidding away.

He summoned Chronos to cast magarudyne, whipping the flames into a burning cyclone and blowing the two blades into the two Shadows like he predicted. Jun got to his feet, nursing his back, then grabbed the handle of each blade and slashed them from the Shadow's torsos before swinging them down the two Shadows.

He quickly summoned Chronos to cast Love Prayer, simply because he couldn't continue to fight and live with his hurt back.

He wasn't a monster like those kids Minato trained.

"I'm not exactly just a florist either." Jun laughed to himself as he cut down the two Shadows again.

He fell as one of the Shadows tore off his leg, but he stepped forward and began to erase the damage.

Erasing wounds was hard and energy-consuming, but he didn't have the healing powers to regrow a whole leg. He knew the paths he had to take, so whatever it took to survive in this battle…

He slowed time to a crawl just in time to dodge under the Shadow's next wave of attacks, spinning around and slashing at them from behind.

He only got the male, the female escaping with light wounds on its back.

It twisted, driving a kick to Jun's torso, but he blocked it by stabbing a whole katana into its leg.

The Shadow screamed as Jun slammed it to the ground, slicing its head off. The florist leapt backwards, ramming his back into the male Shadow, pushing it back towards the flames before spinning into a head-removing sword swing.

Jun ducked under the regenerated female Shadow's sword stab, tackling it with his shoulder and slicing the arm at the shoulder. He caught it by the forearm and used both blades to cut through both Shadows.

The arm dissolved in his hand as the Shadow reformed, so he rolled to pick up the second blade and stabbed them both as they charged.

_~ Wait, Shadows shouldn't regenerate that fast… ~_ Fuuka said in his ear. _~ Jun, this time try feinting. ~_

Jun stepped back from the Shadows as they quickly reformed, then charged and slashed at the male's head, only to pull away at the last second and swerve around it.

There was a sickly spray of ichor as the Shadow's head was forced up by another from underneath it, though the Shadow seemed to ignore the bizarre new growth.

_~ They're predicting your attacks… ~_ Fuuka realised. _~ And they begin their regeneration before they actually die so you won't get to rest! Someone help him! ~_

_SLICE_

The two Shadows fell to the ground. "It's fine Fuuka-san." Jun panted, wiping Ichor from his face. "All I have to do is figure out the timing of their prediction and break it."

He turned around and watched as the Shadows began to reform, slower than they had been doing earlier. "See?" Jun asked her. "Nothing to worry about-"

He looked down as a tree root wrapped itself around his ankle. "Damn." He whispered as the Shadows split up and dove around to attack him from both sides.

With one leg trapped, he couldn't get enough spin into his attacks to actually kill them in one blow.

If he stabbed them, then they'd still rip his head off as they ran through the blade.

He glanced at the watch Tatsuya gave him.

Only one thing for it.

He dropped both swords and summoned a card in each hand. "CHRONOS! THRONE!"

He crushed them in either hand.

"_**God Hand.**_"

Jun's hands burst into golden flames as he ducked under the two Shadows, caught them both by the thigh and swung them both into each other.

He grinned as he glared at the root trapping his foot, and it withered to dust that mixed into the puddle on the floor.

The male Shadow charged at Jun, who ducked under it and threw it over his shoulders before spinning into a kick that sent the female Shadow that was running behind it flying to the edge of the ring of flame that still burnt in the heavy rain.

The male Shadow picked up the two blades and leapt for Jun, who caught one blade between his knuckles and rammed a fist into the Shadow's jaw. The second blade flew through the air, landing in the female Shadow's head blade-first; killing it instantly.

_~ Wow Jun-san! ~_ Fuuka gasped. _~ That was amazing! ~_

Jun smiled as he flipped the blade between his knuckles and caught it as some charred bones fell from his burning hands. "Unfortunately, this won't last forever." He said in reply as he tossed the sword aside.

_~ Jun-san..? ~_

Jun smiled as he rammed a golden fist through the female Shadow's chest, then tore his arm up through its head and slammed the male Shadow against the floor.

_~ Everyone! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ Stop Jun-san! He's going to get himself killed with that attack! ~_

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

The gold flames surrounding Jun's hands vanished, leaving them withered to blackened stubs.

The circle of fire surrounding him died out in the rain.

Erebus' jaw lengthened into a longer, canine jaw.

Its shoulders grew in width as the whole Shadow became a beast.

_**Intelligence means nothing**_

_**All the wisdom in the world cannot deny the fact that humans are but as beasts**_

"Fuuka-san!" Naoto shouted. "What's going on?"

Erebus rammed his skull into Jun's sending him flying. "FUUKA!" Shinji shouted, charging at Erebus' new form. "Come on!"

The Beast turned and rammed a hand into Shinji, launching him back several feet. "Easy…" Kenji warned, raising a hand for a Persona card.

It didn't come.

"Fuuka-san…" Kenji asked, opening and closing his hand over and over again in disbelief. "FUUKA-SAN!"

Silence.

Naoto looked to Aigis, who had fallen to the floor, lifeless.

Teddie fell to his knees, clutching his head.

Koromaru whimpered.

"Dammit…" Shinji growled. "It's blocking our Personas…"

"JUN-SAN!" Kenji shouted, suddenly realising that the one closest to the monster was without hands.

Jun was on his knees, screaming in agony.

"DAMMIT!" Shinji roared, charging forward to grab one of Jun's discarded Katana.

Erebus pounced on Jun, slamming the injured man to the floor.

Shinji leapt into the air with a scream of fury, swinging his blade down on the monsters head.

"JUN!" he shouted, pushing the headless monster away from the man. "You okay?"

He wasn't.

His shirt was drenched in blood and his chest seemed sickeningly flat, as if every single rib in his body had been crushed. Blood was seeping through his lips, dark and thick from grievous internal injuries. He wasn't moving, he wasn't breathing…

"Dammit…" Shinji growled as Erebus regenerated. "DAMNIT!"

**BLAMBLAM**

The monster fell sideways as two bullets from Naoto's Beretta 92 burst through its skull. "The Shadow's current incarnation prevents us from using our Persona's abilities." She explained as she kept her gun trained on the Shadow's regenerating head. "This includes Teddie's sanity, our healing abilities, our natural resilience against injury, our communication with Fuuka-san and Rise, the ability to use the Bolters and chain-weapons, access to the TV World, and Aigis-san's mechanisms."

Erebus surged back to its feet, its red orbs trained on Naoto.

**BLAMBLAM**

She didn't even miss a beat, dropping two slugs in the monster's skull as she continued speaking sternly. "If Jun is dead, then we owe him not to let that waste. If we kill this form without getting injured, then we should regain our abilities and be able to receive reinforcements again."

**BLAMBLAM**

"Right, so you're just gonna keep shooting it then?" Kenji asked as Shinji backed off from the writhing Shadow.

"Unfortunately, unlike the Bolter, my handgun only carries eight rounds." Naoto said. "It takes two shots to kill it and I only have two bullets left."

"So that leaves me and this guy then." Shinji sighed, swinging the Katana in his hand. "Tch."

"HHRAGH!"

Ichor flew from the Shadow as its head went flying. "There…" the new arrival panted. "Found… you guys…"

"Kaz?" Kenji asked, before laughing. "Man, what kept you?"

"Traffic…" Kaz panted, standing upright.

**BLAMBLAM**

Erebus' head exploded behind Kazushi.

"This guy keeps coming back after we kill him." Shinji explained, kicking up the second katana and tossing it to Naoto. "We can't use our Personas right now either, so don't let your guard down."

"Thank you." Naoto replied, getting into a kendo stance her grandfather had taught her. The blade was far heavier than the bamboo shinai she'd trained with, but that was only to be expected.

Her muscles were also much weaker than she realised. She'd been relying on her Persona's strength far too much.

Erebus got back to its feet and roared. "Surround it everyone." Naoto ordered as the four of them got into a square formation around the Shadow. "It will charge, and when it does, move and cut. Efficiency, not skill. Let the sword cut for you."

Kenji refused to comment that, as the only one of them with an axe, he wasn't at liberty to use the strategy that Naoto was suggesting.

Shinji stepped over Jun's corpse, thinking a silent apology to his fallen ally.

He didn't need to go like that.

He deserved to go down fighting, not whimpering.

He would have gone down fighting, had he not been robbed of what made him more than human right at the very end.

And now four mere humans stand before the beast.

It charged.

Shinji stepped forward.

Shinji slashed.

Shinji cut.

Erebus fell.

It landed atop the fallen hero.

The hero with a grenade in his mouth.

"When did he…" Shinji gasped, before seeing the fading smile as an ashen stump weaved into the pin and pulled from it the grenade.

Shinji smiled.

He ran back.

Erebus roared.

_**KRAKOOOM**_

Silence.

The crack of flames.

The groan of the Shadow as it returned to life.

The roar of Kenji charging forward.

The thud of axe hitting flesh.

The scream of Erebus healing.

The scream of a warrior swinging his axe.

The trickle of ichor landing in puddles.

The splash as its head landed in the water.

The grunt as the Shadow grew it back.

The stab of Kazushi's blade through the beast's heart.

The slice of the blade leaving through the skull.

The smash of Shinji's fist through the split body.

The rip of Erebus' body being torn apart.

The gentle crash of the heavy rain hitting his face.

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

These were the last sounds Jun Kurosu heard.

* * *

(/')

* * *

"Heey, sleeping beauty!"

I opened my eyes and glared at Adachi. "We just lost one of our allies." I told him. "He was a good man, unlike you."

"Hey, come on now." Adachi laughed. "That's not exactly fair, coming from you."

I sighed. "Mitsuru, just so you know, this guy was convicted of attempted rape, serial murder, perversion of justice, destruction of evidence, and being an absolute sicko."

"Hey, that's not all there is to me." Adachi laughed.

"True." I admitted. "You're also a sick bastard that almost killed Minato twice, almost ended the world, and-"

He pulled a gun against my head. "No, I did not." He said.

"Fine." I sighed. "He told a bunch of kids that he was going to orchestrate instrumentality so they would kill the fog monster that was trying to take over his soul, and only stayed in prison because he needed somewhere quiet to fix the damage. How's that going by the way?"

"Pretty good." Adachi laughed, pocketing the gun. "You really should take better care of dangerous things like these ya know."

"Which is why they chained you to me." I told him. "And believe me, I'm not letting you out of my sight, so give me my gun back."

"Aw, come on." Adachi reasoned. "You can trust me!"

"I know." I told him. "That's why I'm not letting you out of my sight. And believe me, I can see pretty far."

"Not far enough though, if they got one over on you." Adachi chuckled. "What're you gonna do, keep swapping Persona users forever?"

"I got a plan in mind." I smirked. "So, Mitsuru, how're you doing?"

"Who did we lose?" she asked.

"Jun Kurosu." I told her. "He was from the second generation."

"You know, there were actually Persona users _before _Tartarus." Adachi piped in. "Of course, they don't count in your little 'generation' system, do you?"

I closed my eyes. "Shut up Adachi."

* * *

(/')

* * *

_**There is no Justice**_

_**Only opposing sides convinced of their own righteousness**_

Erebus' new form was a man standing in a robe. It carried a bowl in each hand- the right hand dish was burning and the other held a storm.

A piece of cloth loosely covered the two red orbs that served as eyes, but its evil grin remained as maniacal as ever.

A black blade pointed downwards floated around the Shadow. The whole form was a perversion of the symbol of lady justice.

_~ Hey! Can you hear me? ~_

Shinji smiled. "It's good to hear your voice again Fuuka." He said as Aigis blinked, standing to her feet.

"Oh wow…" Teddie groaned. "That was beary fuzzy…"

_~ Uh, where's Jun? ~ _Fuuka asked.

Nobody answered.

She could feel his absence.

_~ Oh no… ~_

"Fuuka-san." Naoto said flatly, avoiding the topic as she reclaimed her bolter. "Please scan the enemy. Rise, please bring Seta and anyone else who is fit to fight."

_-^- Yukari-san says that anyone weak to Fire or Ice should get out of the fight! -^-_ Rise shouted. _-^- It's gonna use them to a level that we've never seen before! -^-_

"I'm out." Kenji said. "So's Koromaru."

The dog whimpered, but he agreed as the two of them bounded for the TV. Kenji tagged Seta as they swapped places.

"Alright then." Shinji growled, turning to the Shadow. "It likes to keep us waiting, doesn't it?"

The Shadow glanced at Shinji as the party got ready, its grin as menacing as ever.

Then Erebus lowered its stance and stretched its hands forward before it, the fire underneath the storm.

Then it twisted its shoulders to bring its hands to its hips, rotating the palms to keep the fire and the storm in the same position relative to each other.

"Uh-oh…" Teddie muttered. "This is beary beary bad…"

The Shadow stepped forward, bringing its hands straight ahead and launching a powerful firestorm in a straight line.

Shinji created a wall of stone to block it, but the blast burst through it with ease. If he hadn't dodged, he would be dead.

"So it can use the Kamehameha." Kazushi grunted. "Great."

The Shadow raised the cup of fire into the air, sizzling as the rain boiled in the flames.

The flames danced from the cup, coursing through the bay like serpents, forming the walls of a labyrinth of flames.

Then the rain became snow.

_~ Um, it's just trying to separate you all while confusing you… ~_ Fuuka told everyone. _~ The flames aren't that strong so you can jump through them if you need to, but cover your face while doing so. ~_

"The fire walls are only a couple of feet apart." Aigis pointed out. "Why is the snow settling?"

_~ I don't know… ~_ Fuuka admitted. _~ It must be part of its ability, but I'm trying to work out what it- AIGIS MOVE! ~_

The blonde leapt through the flames as a cyclone whipped up around her original position and was struck by a powerful burst of lightning.

_~ The Shadow's manipulating heat currents to create localised thunderstorms! ~_ Fuuka explained as wind began whipping up around Aigis's feet again. _~ If you see the snow moving around you, you need to move FAST! ~ _

Aigis ran back through the corridors, patting out the small flames on the shoulder of her jacket before getting stopped by a powerful hand.

Erebus stood there.

The two cups floated above its shoulders, the blade floating behind its back. It gripped Aigis's shoulder with its evil grin.

The snow under their feet began to turn.

_~ Naoto-san, attack at three o'clock! ~_

**DAKKA**

Erebus' torso exploded and Aigis leapt back, landing in the snow as the lightning struck. The sparks danced across the snow, paralysing her.

Aigis screamed for help as Erebus began to reform, crawling away as it took a step towards her.

Seta burst from the flames, ramming his right hand into Erebus' head. The Shadow was forced through the flames, where Shinji's blade was waiting for it.

"Alright!" Shinji grunted, pulling his axe from the ground and stepping ba-

His foot was frozen to the ground- buried under six inches of solid snow and ice.

The snow around him began to move in a circle.

"SOLJACK!" Seta shouted, summoning the Jakkai soldier to cast Blue Wall on Shinji to protect him.

A blast of ice rose from underneath him as flames span around Shinji from both sides. He broke out of the attack and was grabbed by the throat by Erebus, who lifted both him and Seta into the air.

Aigis tore through the flames and kicked the beast in the jawbone, spinning over it and firing a wave of bullets into it point-blank. Erebus' sword swung around and struck her on the back, launching her back into the flames.

"ATHENA!" She shouted, spinning into the air and charging back at the Shadow with her Persona. She burst into golden flames as the goddess of victory struck the beast's blade with her shield as Aigis sprung a short chainsword from her wrist and stabbed it into Erebus' throat.

She clenched her face as flesh and ichor flew as the blades roared with hunger. The teeth devoured the Shadow, tearing straight through it. It collapsed into two halves as it lost grip on the two men. "Keep your head above the mayhem." Aigis warned, hopping back through the flames to get some distance before the Shadow reformed.

Shinji and Seta both dodged behind the flames. It was a good strategy- though the flames did little damage if you passed through them quickly, they obscured vision, and through Fuuka's guidance they could get some surprise attacks on the Shadow.

Until it rose above the flames.

"It's riding the thermals…" Naoto realised, aiming her bolter at it. "Of course it's riding the thermals."

**DAKKA**

The massive bullets flattened as they melted on their approach- but they froze and shattered as they hit the ground.

_~ That's just not right! ~_

* * *

(/')

* * *

"That's insane…" Mitsuru gasped. "Minato, how would you-"

"He's not Minato, lady." Adachi chuckled. "It's his Shadow, Get that into your pretty little head already."

"What is it Mitsuru?" I asked her.

"The Enemy keeps changing form." Mitsuru told me. "Currently, it's a heat manipulator-"

"I've been watching." I told her. "Just melted a bullet with a heat barrier."

"I- Yes." Mitsuru nodded. "What strategies can you offer?"

"Don't shoot it." Adachi chuckled. "Just run while nuking it with Almighty attacks."

"There's a maze of fire and it's snowing." I sighed. "It an also snipe you with lightning, it flies, and has super strength."

Adachi laughed. "Man, this is gonna be fun." He sighed, shaking his head. "Shame we're already this late."

I lifted up my wrist and tugged on it. "GLURK!" Adachi choked, his head swinging towards me.

"Well, look at that." I smirked. "Move the chain to my arm and you're my little bitch… how does that feel?"

"Not as kinky as it sounds." Adachi wheezed, rubbing his neck.

"Focus!" Mitsuru shouted. "What can we do to help?"

**BLAM**

I looked down to my arm to see a stump with a straight chain running out of it. The chain curved sharply near a smoking gun, fading into invisibility towards Adachi's throat.

"And you really thought it would be that easy?" I asked him. "Really?"

"Not particularly." Adachi sighed, shoving the gun into his trousers. "Tell them to focus ice attacks above it, with Zio spells to break it up. Garu will keep the heat contained near the Shadow, and to use walls for those types to keep the combo contained."

I smirked. "They're already doing that."

"Oh, really?" Adachi asked, his eyebrow raising. "Charlie's there, isn't he?"

"Charlie?" Mitsuru asked.

"Seta." I translated, closing my eyes and focusing back on the battle. "He likes nicknames."

* * *

(/')

* * *

The water vapour from the melted ice span around the Shadow's bubble, exploding each time lightning struck it. The heat only aggravated the violent reaction of splitting hydrogen from oxygen, and the effect was akin to very small nuclear explosions.

Of course, the team was exceptionally liable to blasts of heat but, thanks to Erebus concentrating the heat into blasts, convention wasn't an issue when dodging them.

_~ Alright, it's working! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ But Seta-san's running low on power…~_

Of course he was.

He was the only one among them who could cast the Wall spells needed for the attack to work, and Kazushi wasn't all that proficient with his lightning attacks, so Seta had to pick up the slack on that too.

Still, it was the only plan they had, and it was his responsibility to make sure it worked.

He glanced at his feet to see the turning snow. He hopped out of the attack range and launched another Ziodyne at Erebus.

Teddie swung his claw into the spinning card to create a massive block of ice above the Shadow. It melted as soon as it existed, and evaporated as it sloshed around the bubble of heat, then exploded as it was struck by lightning.

The combo was flawless, unless the Shadow adapted.

Of course, if it adapted, Seta would have time to rest.

So it was waiting.

Once Seta was exhausted, the human's wouldn't be able to defend themselves against its might any longer.

But if it changed tactics, then they would just find another counter-attack.

So this was the best plan.

It hurt.

But it was the best plan.

"Alright everyone, I've got the Shock Magatama's!" Naoto declared, pulling her hands out of the OLED sheet carrying a blanket wrapped around a pile of blue orbs.

Oh, that was it.

The Shadow dropped the heat barrier and descended to the ground. _~ It's changing tactics again! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ Be careful! ~_

Erebus raised a hand and twirled it lazily.

The flame walls were torn into the air and began spinning in a complex cyclone of flames. The Shadow opened its hand wide and the cyclone became a spinning ball of super-heated flame, like a sun or-

_~ It's a star… ~_ Fuuka realised as wind began blowing towards the Shadow and the fireball shrank in size but grew in heat. _~ It's creating fusion! Oh no… ~_

"But that's-" Naoto stopped herself. She'd decided to stop being surprised at just what Shadow's could do when they put their mind to it, and she wasn't going to start now.

"The power of the sun in the palm of its hands…" Aigis gasped. "I've never seen that kind of power before…"

"Yeah, but what's it gonna do with it?" Shinji asked. "It seems a bit much just to throw-"

The Star collapsed.

The wind screamed towards the Shadow's hand

The entire party had to brace themselves against the floor to avoid being sucked in themselves.

_~ HOW? ~_ Fuuka screamed. _~ That star had no where NEAR the mass needed to turn into a Black Hole! And even then, it should be much stronger than this! ~_

_-^- Uh, guys? -^- _Rise interrupted. _-^- Yukari-san says that Minato-san did this before. Basically, around the Shadow is a big sphere of certain death to anything that touches it, but the Shadow probably can't let go of it or it'll get eaten itself! -^-_

"The event horizon…" Naoto nodded, noticing the bubble of darkness around the Shadow's arm. "Of course, the amount of power and control needed for this would prevent it from using its other abilities."

_~ Yes! That's why the sword hasn't been moving! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ It's like a computer! If it tries to do too many things at once, or run a powerful program, it'll get the hourglass and the less important programs freeze up! If it has the black hole, it can't do anything else! ~_

"Huh." Kazushi grunted. "Doesn't change the fact that it's got a FREAKING. BLACK. HOLE. AT THE END OF ITS ARM!"

"But what's it going to do about it?" Seta asked.

"That's what I asked." Shinji growled.

"No, really." Seta continued. "I don't think it knows itself."

Naoto looked at the Shadow, and as a human, the body language screamed uncertainty.

All it knows is that it has a very strong thing in its hands.

If it lets go of it, it'll die.

If it charges and uses it as a melee weapon, the other humans will get it in the back, and if it's forced to regenerate, it'll lose the Black Hole.

"It doesn't have a plan…" Naoto realised. "The Shadow has no idea what it's going to do next, because all the options available are bad ones…"

Seta rested his blade on the ground. "I've got an idea." He said as the black hole's gravity began to drag the sword towards Erebus. "Cover me."

He held his right arm out and charged for the Shadow. "SENSEI!" Teddie shouted.

There was a burst of white flames, and Seta's right sleeve exploded, revealing a white sleeve that led into a white glove, with golden spikes on the fingers that gripped the massive, decorative Naginata.

Tossing the weapon into his left hand, Seta leapt into the air and slammed his right arm into the centre of the event horizon.

The Black Hole dissipated upon contact with the gloved claw, and Seta slashed at the Shadow as Naoto fired.

**DAKKA**

Erebus' head exploded.

Seta rolled on the ground and got to his feet. "Knew it." He grinned, panting as his right arm returned to normal, if bare.

_~ Uh… what- what was that? ~_

"Myriad Truths." Seta explained as Erebus began to rebuild itself, explaining the skill he used but not answering Fuuka's question. "I force reality onto the target, but I need skin contact or a large source of spiritual power behind me for it to work." He blew on his hand as the Shadow got to its feet. "Of course, it doesn't work on Shadows themselves, but Shadows doing impossible things is another thing entirely."

He ducked under a flaming sword that swung for him, then bolted back towards the party as the Shadow pursued. Naoto picked it off with her Bolter as Seta's blade vanished.

Shinji charged at the sword and tackled it, wrestling it to the ground. "BLONDIE! NEWBIE!" He shouted. "GET IN THERE!"

Teddie and Kazushi didn't need to be told twice. Summoning their Personae, they loosed a flurry of ice and electric attacks upon Erebus as it tried to establish a barrier of heat.

_~ Of course! ~_ Fuuka gasped. _~ It's smarter, so it's more prone to panic and loose its confidence when we throw off its rhythm! Good work everyone! ~_

Shinji stamped on the sword blade and gripped by the handle.

With a grunt of pain, he swung it over his head.

With a shout of anger, he swung it down through Erebus' head.

The sword broke against the concrete.

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

The falling snow returned to heavy rain.

Erebus got to its feet, hunched over as a blue glass folded up from the ground and encased it in a bipyramid of blue crystal. It sang in a high-pitched wail as it floated into the air.

_**Society means nothing**_

_**Even with all these people in thy way thou art all alone**_

The crystal shrunk as a ring of thinner diamonds span around it. The diamonds lengthened into blades and the rotation accelerated.

"Shit…" Shinji gasped. "GET DOWN!"

A thin pink beam shot out from the Shadow, piercing a building.

The beam swung around, almost decapitating those who almost weren't quick enough, slicing through several buildings in the process and chopping through one of the pillars of the Moonlight Bridge.

The nearest building began to slide towards the water front. "Oh shit…" Kazushi whimpered. "Not good."

"ATLAS!"

**BLAM**

The titan rose up and dragged a stone pillar to catch the falling upper half of the building.

-^- _The centre! -^-_ Rise shouted. _-^- Kenji-senpai says that you need to catch the falling half dead centre and on a floor to push it back, but that won't stop the building from collapsing! -^-_

_~ EVERYONE MOVE! ~ _Fuuka screamed. _~ GET OUT OF THERE! ~_

The Shadow had returned to its diamond shape, but twisted into itself and shifted into a cross-like shape. Pink beams shot from each end, meeting in the middle and unleashing a huge blast.

It didn't hit any of the Persona users.

It obliterated the stone pillar and much the entirety of the building that was being supported.

The roof of the building rolled in the air as the bottom half collapsed into shards of glass, steel and concrete. It was dragged into the vacuum left by the blast, most of it being dragged away from the battle.

There was a pile of massive white fangs amongst the rubble.

"Oh man…" Kazushi gasped as the first of the glass began to rain down from above. "Oh hell no…"

"Dammit!" Shinji growled, slamming his hands to the ground and summoning five pillars from the ground to catch the rooftop several metres above their heads.

The pillars tore straight through the roof- had Shinji trained in architecture or structural engineering, he would have widened the surface area of the pillars in order to catch them, but instead he became a chef.

"Fat lot of good that's doing me right now," He spat ruefully as the concrete shattered into broken slabs above him as they smashed into his pillars. He turned around so the building collided with his shoulders- he'd spent too much time trying to stop the roof's descent instead of running like everyone else.

He covered the back of his neck with his hands as the concrete chunks collapsed around him. "Dammit…" he coughed, trying to breathe dust.

Then he heard the ghastly wail above him.

He looked up to see the bottom edge of the Shadow twist and melt into a slowly spinning drill.

'_I hate drills.'_ Shinji thought as he tried unsuccessfully to melt into the rubble as the drill grew closer and closer, summoning a card into his hand and spinning it.

He put an evoker to his head. "KOHRYU!"

**BLAM**

The golden dragon twisted up from his temple, coiling around Erebus and roaring as lightning tore through its crystallaine body.

Now how the hell did he do that?

A powerful blast slammed into the Shadow's side as it screamed from both wounds. The drill froze as the diamond morphed into a massive hexagon-like shield, absorbing the blast before contorting into a longer shape with a black sphere with blue spikes spinning around it, launching a powerful blast right back at the attacker.

Shinji grabbed a huge chunk of concrete and slammed it into the immobile drill, only for the stone to crumple against the blue structure.

He grunted, then wrapped his arms around the contorting spike and lifted it.

The Shadow above him was raised into the air.

It contorted to form a cannon pointed straight down at Shinji.

He glared right into the black core.

**DAKKA**

Ichor fell onto Shinji's face.

The Shadow screamed, unfolding itself into a massive cloud of spikes pointing towards the water, withdrawing the drill in its death throes.

Shinji hoisted himself out of the hole he was in and ran across the rubble as the Shadow began to fold itself back into the diamond form from before.

"So, we can only hurt it while it's attacking…" Naoto noted, lowering her Bolter. "Problem is, when it does attack, it doesn't hold back…"

"Sorry, am I the only one freaked out by how this thing came straight out of Evangelion?" Kazushi asked flippantly. "I mean COME ON!"

"Get used to it." Seta told him. "It only gets creepier from here."

"Sensei…" Teddie warned him as the Shadow began to twist into a thin tower of rotating squares of various widths.

In the middle was the black core.

"HIT THAT CORE WITH EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT!" Seta roared as Metatron descended from a rooftop and launched a Megidolaon upon the Shadow.

Erebus launched a powerful blast through the angel and obliterated the rooftop it came from. Seta summoned Satan to launch a Black Viper attack at the core as Teddie and Shinji bombarded it with spikes of ice and stone.

The Shadow screamed as it returned to the crystal form, then split into a rotating ring of blades surrounding the core. _~ It's going to attack from all sides now! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ Be careful! ~_

A long, thin beam shot from the Shadow, piercing one of the suspension support pillars of the Moonlight Bridge, before swinging around to slice through the suspension cables on the Iwatodai-side half of the bridge.

The steel and concrete bridge twisted like paper. Cars began to slide over the side, falling into the black water with a great splash.

_~ But… but that doesn't hurt us… ~_ Fuuka gasped as the beam continued to slash around, cutting through multiple towers before fading out. _~ I mean, destroying buildings doesn't work, but how would destroying the bridge help it win this battle? ~_

"It wasn't about winning this time…" Aigis realised, a note of horror in her voice. "It was about hurting us as much as it could, so it is killing innocent lives because we can't stop it…"

Shinji slammed a fist to the ground to push the upper halves of the buildings back and seal the damage with his stone. "No more." He decided. "No more deaths. We owe them that."

The Shadow sang as it contorted into a cannon-like shape, aimed at the group. "FIRE!" Seta shouted, summoning Izanagi-No-Ookami to launch a searing Agidyne attack at the Shadow as Naoto launched another Megidolaon before letting loose her Bolter.

Aigis and Kazushi both summoned their Personae to stab the Shadow's core, but were consumed by the blast before they could reach their target.

The Persona users only had a split second when they realised that they were too late, that the Shadow's attack would wipe them from the face of the earth.

But before the thought could really sink in, a figure dove down from a rooftop, carrying a grimore in her hands and a stern expression on her face.

Ananta and Shiva rose around her, their powers fusing to cast Infinity and protect the party. The blast melted the ground around them, but the floor under their feet stood firm, even as the space in front of them was reduced to a hole.

Black water flowed through the sewage and fresh water supply pipes that had been rendered open, falling into the exposed ocean below the artificial bay.

"Please watch your step." Elizabeth warned everyone pleasantly, taking a moment to adjust her hat. "The fall seems to be quite precarious."

Shinji clapped his hands together and slammed them against the ground, creating several stone bridges over the chasm. "COME ON!" He shouted, standing upright and grabbing his Evoker.

_~ NO! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ If you get too close, it'll kill you! ~_

"So what do we do?" he asked. "Keep firing at it while it blocks and launches everything back? In case you haven't noticed, we're all standing in the same area. For any of us to stand a chance, we need _at least_ two groups."

"And decoy to draw out its core, and another group to attack it." Naoto nodded. "Of course, the two groups must be of similar size-"

She was cut off by the deafening roar of Erebus' blast, which was once again blocked by Elizabeth's shield. "I propose making a decision quickly." She suggested. "As you can imagine, this shield does consume _quite_ a lot of energy."

"Teddie, Naoto, you two are with me." Seta decided. "Aigis-san, take everyone else. We'll go in opposite directions, keep a distance, bombard it from both sides, alright?"

"Move once the beam stops." Aigis ordered everyone.

The beam died.

The shield faded.

"NOW!" Shinji roared, slamming the ground to launch his group onto the rooftops as Teddie slammed his hands against the floor, creating a bridge of ice to carry Seta and Naoto onto the frozen waterfront. The Shadow's crystal formation split into the spinning ring of blades and slashed through Shinji's rising platform, but he created a new bridge of stone for the party to run across as Naoto opened fire with her bolter.

Seta and Teddie summoned the Persona cards into their hands and crushed them, summoning Kamui and Mara to bombard the Shadow with spears of ice and flames as they ran.

-^- _Ugh, that thing? -^-_ Rise asked as the Shadow morphed into a column built of square shapes of various sizes, launching another sky-splitting blast from the black orb in the centre. -^- _Not Surtr or something? -^-_

Athena and Musashi charged from Aigis and Kazushi's positions on the rooftops and stabbed the core as it attacked the waterfront. The Shadow screamed as it explosively transformed into a mass of spikes, then contorted itself into an x-shape, launching a thin white beam from each end that met in the centre to launch a much more powerful blast which was blocked by a massive stone wall that rose from the ground.

The blast melted through the stone like a hot sledgehammer through a snowman, and Elizabeth had to raise her forcefield again as their teammates on the ground bombarded the core with ice and steel.

Eventually, the Shadow screamed and ceased its attack, folding back up into a defensive diamond, then sending a thin beam spinning around the area wildly, achieving nothing other than cutting a few walls in half and slicing the ground behind Teddie's head.

_~ It's on the run! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ Keep going! ~_

Shinji launched a flurry of stone pillars at the Shadow as it morphed into a larger form with a massive hexagon shield that absorbed the stone pillars before launching them back. Aigis summoned Athena to smash the pillars down as Shinji stepped back to create a massive stone spike above the Shadow.

The stone fell, piercing Erebus' blue crystal where it was thinnest. The Darkness screamed, morphing into a spiked sphere that span wildly, launching a flurry of weaker, erratic blasts in every direction.

Shinji blocked much of these with a stone wall as Elizabeth summoned Surtr to unleash hellfire upon Erebus. The Shadow screamed again, shifting into the wider form with the spinning blades.

That was when Naoki leapt through the air and landed on one of the large spikes.

Erebus tilted as it loosed its spinning energy blade, slicing vertically downwards. Naoki, being actually on the Shadow, avoided the beam, but Erebus continued to swing the attack at the closest fighter, Kazushi. He dodged to avoid a fatal blow, but still not fast enough, and found his arm cleanly severed from the rest of his body. He stared at his flying limb in horror, then grunted in pain as a new one began to grow from the wound.

"Limbs are lost." Aigis told him, summoning Athena to charge for the exposed core of the Shadow. "That's why we can cast Dia."

The Shadow screamed as various Personae bombarded its exposed core as Naoki ran across its form, pushing back the blue crystal as it began to return to a defensive build.

Kazushi grunted in grim pleasure, summoning a blue card into the air before him and slicing through it. "MUSASHI!" he shouted as the blue-clad samurai sped through the air. "VORPAL BLADE!"

The Shadow screamed as it unfolded into a star shape. Naoki tried to hold on, but he slid off as the Shadow unfolded again into a star and then a third time.

_~ Oh no… ~_ Fuuka gasped. _~ RUN! ~_

A massive blast obliterated the building they were standing on, and many others behind it. Shinji grabbed Kazushi as they leapt to another building, followed by Elizabeth and Aigis as the rooftop fell into the orange wave of certain death.

"SHIT!" Shinji shouted as the beam died, leaving a smoking trail of destruction almost half a mile long in its wake. "Of course, the only way to hit its core is through the blast-hole, isn't it?"

"That appears to be an accurate judgement." Elizabeth commented. "Of course, the Shadow appears to be turning to face us."

"Well ain't that just fantastic." Shinji spat. "And of course your shield isn't enough for it, right?"

"I'm surprised that you noticed, judging from how quickly the shield was decimated during that last blast." Elizabeth smiled. "Unless, of course, you are merely making a cynical guess based on previous experiences?"

"Everyone, RUN!" Aigis shouted as the Shadow prepared to launch another attack.

The four of them leapt from the building as a wave of destruction decimated another row of buildings. They rolled as they hit the ground, sustaining minor injuries that did little to stop them from running for their lives. "Fuuka, initiate Oracle!" Aigis shouted.

_~ It won't work! ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ Only a direct attack through the opening of the blast can stop it, and it must be a powerful one! Oracle comes from above, it's useless! ~_

"ANY VOLUNTEERS?" Shinji shouted as Erebus stopped its attack and began to turn around slowly. "BECAUSE I GOT NOTHING!"

"Throw me." Naoki told him, running up.

"WHAT?"

"I can break through any defence." The Demi-Fiend reasoned. "Get me to the top and I'll rip a hole in it for the Oracle."

"Why the hell didn't we do that from the start then?" Shinji shouted at him.

"Because it would've sliced me in half." Naoki replied, glancing back at the Shadow. "Right now though, I don't think that's gonna happen."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Remarkable." She said, deeply impressed. "Such a simple approach to a simple yet difficult problem, you humans are so…"

"Demon." Naoki corrected as the Shadow's mouth reached the group. "Of course, I'll get incinerated if anything goes wrong, but that's kind of a moot point right now-"

Shinji grabbed him by the waist and hurled the demon right into the opening as it began to charge its blast. "RUN!" he roared, leading the escape as Naoki twisted in the air and slammed a fist right into the centre.

The Shadow screamed as the knuckles sunk into the flesh. Naoki grabbed at something, and rammed his other hand into it, tearing it apart before biting down on the flesh.

Erebus screamed.

A forest of crystal spikes burst from the back of the Shadow, extending for several dozen metres.

Then the crystal began to tear.

Black ichor burst from the wounds as the crystal structure sunk. Naoki leapt back and legged it at the massive beast collapsed, dying under its own weight.

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

"About…" Teddie gasped. "Time…"

_**Destiny is a cold comfort**_

_**There is no plan… Just a series of meaningless events**_

"And here comes Fortune." Shinji grinned as a humanoid figure rose from the carnage. Erebus' jaw smiled at them under the red orbs that served as its eyes.

It turned to face the team. Its flesh merged into something resembling a waistcoat and trousers. There was even a bow-tie and collar around its neck.

"So, what now?" Kazushi asked, picking up his sword. "It's gonna use cards to slice us into pieces?"

The Shadow raised a hand and clicked its fingers.

The team's weapons vanished- even Elizabeth's compendium was gone.

"The hell..?" Shinji whispered as the Shadow clicked again.

Kenji, Rio, Yosuke, Ken, Marina, Koromaru, Yukiko, Yukari and Chie appeared amongst the ichor. Yukari was kneeling over Chie, whose right arm was still missing, the shoulder bandaged, and the left side of her inner torso was on display mid-surgery.

Yukari's hand glowed white over the open wound. No blood was escaping, but the upper-half of a lung was lying inside the cavity, unattached to the blocked off bronchus so the patient could breathe without air just leaving through the wound.

Chie was out cold, barely breathing

Yosuke huddled over next to her with Yukiko's arm around his shoulders, clutching his knees in shock and horror.

Ken was clutching his stomach, blood still weeping from the healing wound.

Marina groggily awoke from unconsciousness. "Wha…?" she mumbled, looking around in confusion. "WHAT?"

The Shadow clicked its fingers again as Fuuka and Rise appeared next to it in their Personae. Erebus clicked its fingers again and the two were forced out of their Personae and onto the floor.

"So, it's a teleporter." Seta deducted as Juno and Kanzeon faded out of existence. "This should be tricky."

Shinji roared and charged for the Shadow, dragging up a massive fist of stone as he did so.

Erebus clicked its fingers.

Shinji was sat at a table, raising a cup of tea to his lips.

He stopped.

"THE HELL?" he shouted, throwing the table into the air as he got to his feet. "ARE YOU SHITTING ME?"

Erebus snapped its fingers again.

Everyone was suddenly dressed in fine eveningwear, as if for a party or dinner at Pierre Gagnaire.

Koromaru was even dressed in a little dog tuxedo.

The Shadow leered at the humans, a permanent smile on its face, as it clicked again.

The eighteen of them were sat around a large circular table amongst the carnage of a ruined waterfront. Silver cutlery was set at each place on the white tablecloth that slowly absorbed the black ichor from the floor and the red rain from above.

Chie fell forwards in her place, the unattached lung rolling out of her torso and through the excessive absolute cleavage in her dress, bouncing off her lap and splashing in the ichor below.

"CHIE!" Yukari shouted, leaning towards her but unable to leave her seat. "Huh?" she shouted, grabbing at the wooden chair and trying to pull herself from it, then the chair from the floor. "Oh no…"

Erebus chuckled as it leaned over her to drop a single rose in a glass vase in the centre of the table.

* * *

(/')

* * *

"I lost contact with Fuuka." Mitsuru growled as the city came into view. "Shadow, what's going on?"

"That's better." I chuckled. "Basically, the Fortune form is a reality warper that's forcing them all to play Calvinball."

"Calvinball?" Mitsuru asked.

"It's a game where the rules are never explained to the players, can change at a moments notice on a mere whim, is insanely complicated and the aim of the game isn't to win, but to have fun." Adachi explained. "I loved that game when I was younger. I kept manipulating the other kids into making rules that stabbed them in the back."

"And, as you can imagine, Erebus is the only one making the rules." I told her. "The one rule that's certain is that the winning team will be the first team that wins."

"Unless it changes its mind." Adachi piped in. "So, how long until we get there?"

"We'll get there just in time to see the last one die." Mitsuru snarled.

I smirked. "Have more faith in them." I told her. "In Calvinball, the most creative one wins."

* * *

(/')

* * *

Erebus slunk around the table menacingly, relishing having all eighteen of these damned mortals under its complete domination.

It stroked a finger across Aigis' shoulder.

She tensed in disgust, but couldn't move her hands as it peeled the strap her dress from her shoulders, letting the right side slack slightly as Aigis turned to glare at the Shadow with utmost hate.

"This doesn't make any sense…" Fuuka said from across the table in a tight turquoise dress with a single shoulder. "I mean, why?"

"It's sick…" Rise hissed, her hair loose, sodden hair sticking to her bare back. "I mean one strong gust of wind, and-"

"No, not that." Fuuka interrupted, trying to ignore her teammate's open chest that was barely covered by two loose pieces of wet cloth. "Why doesn't it just kill us? Why is it doing this?"

"Shadows like to watch us squirm." Yukiko said, cringing as Erebus slipped a hand down the cleavage of her red dress. "It's loving this…"

"Actually, no." Seta pointed out. "Throughout the fight so far, this thing's been trying its damn hardest to kill us. Why play with us now?"

Yukiko gasped as Erebus's hand tensed on her breast.

"Interesting…" Naoto commented, leaning forward in a dark blue dress that did little to hide what she'd being trying to cover for the past ten years of her life. "You don't like us questioning you playing with us now. It's almost as if you'd _like_ to kill us all now, but can't."

Erebus stood up straight, Yukiko sighing with relief as the Shadow's hand left her chest.

"Your powers can affect the world around us, but you can't actually affect us." Naoto continued. "That's why the gloves around our hands won't move, because according to the world you made, our clothes are unbreakable and can only be moved by you."

"That's it?" Naoki asked. "So no magnetic crap?"

"It's like His power, the one he started using after Ryoji showed up…" Yukari noted, glancing at Chie.

Still breathing, good.

Heart's still going, that much is visible.

One advantage of these damned dresses.

"Wait, He was never this good, was he?" Kenji asked.

And HE wasn't. I sure as hell am.

"Hold up, who's this 'He' person?" Yukiko asked. "You've mentioned him, but who is- OW!" She shouted as Erebus smacked her head into the table "HEY!" she shouted, twisting her head to glare at him through her broken nose.

"Minato Arisoto." Elizabeth said.

The table fell silent apart from the candles hissing in the rain that bounced off the tablecloth.

"Wait, I know him." Rise realised. "Blue hair in his face, played guitar at the show in Iwatodai back in oh-nine?" she asked.

"That's the one." Kenjamin laughed, shaking the water out his hair. "The man who beat down a primordial goddess and saved the world."

"Hold on, I remember him." Rio said, turning to Kenji. "Your friend who you went for ramen with all the time, right?"

"He helped Kenji-kun save you when you became a Lost." Teddie told her. "It didn't bring you back, but it's why you both have your Personas."

"I remember…" Yukiko gasped. "He stayed at our inn, remember Chie?" she asked, turning to the unconscious girl instinctively. "Oh… but he's your boyfriend, right Yukari?" she asked the girl next to her best friend.

Yukari looked down.

"Well, where is he?" Rise asked. "I mean, if he's that powerful-"

"He's dead."

Everyone turned to Naoto. "He had a heart attack four years ago." She continued. "He used his entire life force to defeat Nyx, but held on a few more months somehow."

There was silence.

Yukari laughed.

"What's so funny?" Kazushi asked her.

She kept on laughing despite the gravity of the situation. "You're terrified of his mere _name_, aren't you?" Yukari sneered, turning her head to glare at Erebus. "All that, and you're just a little-"

SLAM

"Yukari!" Shinji shouted, staring across the table at the Shadow who just pushed the girl's head onto the table.

"I'm alrigh." She grunted, spitting up blood. "Bid ma doungue, but nothing bad."

She spat out a chunk of flesh and licked her teeth with her new tongue- it always felt weird.

"You're absolutely scared shitless of him coming, aren't you?" Marina asked, smirking.

Erebus stepped back and glared at her.

"You're tired." Aigis realised. "I hadn't thought about it, but you're tired…"

"That's it…" Fuuka gasped. "We've all been fighting on a rotation, taking breaks as we go, but you've been fighting non-stop since you appeared… You're running out of power and need to recuperate!"

Erebus glared at her.

"Holy shit, that makes sense…" Kenjamin managed, laughing. "Damn, that makes so much sense!"

Erebus's shoulders shook, as if it was sobbing.

Then it threw its head back, clearly laughing.

It raised a hand into the air.

It clicked its fingers.

And Akihiko Sanada landed on the table.

* * *

(/')

* * *

"FINALLY!" I shouted. "Been wondering why he was around."

"Who?" Mitsuru asked.

Adachi yawned, stretching his hands behind his head, legs dangling over the edge of the sidecar.

"Akihiko." I told her. "Back from the dead, apparently."

Adachi's eyes opened wide. "Not possible." He said. "Dead is dead. You found that out the hard way with the Homunculi, remember?"

"What about that one time in January?" Mitsuru asked.

"It didn't work." I told her. "All soulless homunculi that thought they were the people they replaced. They all died within three years."

Mitsuru frowned.

"So it was for nothing." she said eventually. "Then why is Akihiko alive?"

"That's what I want to find out about, so shush." I snapped, closing my eyes.

* * *

(/')

* * *

"How the hell..?" Shinji gasped once Akihiko had crawled off the table.

"It's a game." Akihiko told him. "The Arcana are playing a game with us."

"What game?" Yukari asked. "And why did they bring you back?"

Akihiko sighed. "Every night, there'll be Shadows to battle." He explained. "And every red moon, you have to fight one of the Arcana. This is just the Fool, it's a preview of each of the other twenty-one Arcana…" He gulped. "Next time, you'll have to fight Magician…"

"You said 'you'." Naoto noted. "Why didn't you include yourself there when you did before?"

Akihiko looked down at his feet.

"I'm their damned referee…" he sighed. "They dragged me back, wiped my memories of whatever the hell happens after death, and made me their DAMNED REFEREE!" He shouted, stepping backwards, arms in the air as if at gunpoint.

He looked at everyone in despair. "I tried to warn you, but you were already fighting…" He said. "If I touch either you guys, or the Shadow, then the human race is disqualified- a demon will come out of every single one of the big white things and kill every human alive."

"What..." Seta growled.

"That's not all…" Akihiko continued, backing away from everyone. "If… If you guys can't kill the main enemy within the hour, then the Shadow comes out into the real world and the fight continues, where everyone can see…"

"Akihiko." Shinji asked his old friend calmly. "How long do we have left?"

Akihiko looked in his eyes.

"Three minutes." He said. "And you have eleven forms left…"

SLAM

A screaming human fireball rammed Erebus against the ground, punching straight through its head. "_**ALRIGHT!**_" the human torch declared, pumping his fists into the air. "_**WHO DA MAN? HUH? JUNPEI IORI, THE BADDEST MO-FO OF THEM ALL! COME ON!**_"

The Darkness rose to its feet, regenerating its head. "BEHIND YOU!" Fuuka shouted, as Junpei swung around with his sword, slicing through the Shadow's head.

"_**NUH-UH, NOT ME!**_" Junpei jeered, kicking the Shadow's chest with a burning foot. "_**YOU CANNOT TOUCH- HOLY SHIT AKIHIKO-SENPAI!**_"

"YOU'VE GOT SECONDS TO KILL IT OR WE ALL DIE!" Akihiko shouted. "I CAN'T HELP, DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, JUST KILL IT AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!"

"_**UH, ON IT! ATTIS! **_" Junpei shouted, dropping the sword and charging into the Shadow, ripping its chest open with flaming hands and ripping it apart with lightning speed and efficiency with the daggers that grew from his wrists.

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

Shinji got to his feet and threw the table into the air. "ALL RIGHT!" He shouted as everyone else stood up, Chie falling back. "Yukari, fix her. EVERYONE ELSE!"

_**Strength is worthless**_

_**Suffer and despair as you struggle against an undefeatable foe**_

The Shadow vanished as Junpei was sliced in half at the waist. "GARGH!" He shouted, grabbing his legs as the wound healed. "Dammit!" he shouted, skin regenerating under his fireproof clothes. "Where'd he go?"

Shinji shouted as his arm flew into the air with a trail of blood. Marina cast Diarahan as her own legs were sliced off.

"It's using a normal sword!" Naoki shouted, tugging off his tie. "It's just really, really fast!"

He coughed up blood as the black Shadow appeared on his chest, driving the blade through his heart.

* * *

(/')

* * *

"Mitsuru." I told her, grabbing onto her waist tightly with one arm and grabbing Adachi's chain with the other. "Swerve left and brake now."

"Are you-?"

"_**NOW.**_"

She did as instructed and the three of us went flying across the water, the bike screeching into a building.

I launched us higher into the air as Adachi pulled out the Evoker and shot me in the head, but too busy using what little power I had to keep us from dying to deal with that.

I let go of Mitsuru just before we landed, the three of us rolling across the concrete and ichor until I landed on one knee, one hand on the ground and the other outstretched to catch the Evoker as it fell to the ground.

The rain slicked my hair down my face as ichor bled down over my eye and cheek.

I glared up to see Yukari, kneeling with Chie and next to Yosuke.

She was staring at me in shock… and recognition. Considering the circumstances, I couldn't really blame her for thinking that I looked like -

"M-Minato…" she gasped.

I stood to my feet.

"Wrong." I told her, grabbing Jun's sword and throwing it into the awaiting black bubble.

The idiot knew what was going to happen to him from the start, didn't he...

I grabbed Yosuke by the face. "_**Arcana Shift.**_" I snarled, the chain on my right hand vanishing as one grew from my left, connecting to a collar around Yosuke's neck.

I let go of him and shoved my hand into Chie's chest.

Let's see how much of His power this guy can handle.

Yosuke screamed as I programmed the Hollow Arcana to build a new lung, ribcage, circulation system, arm, boob and shirt for Chie. "Adachi, Mitsuru." I said. "I'm gonna be out of it for a minute or so." I told them. "Everyone else, you have no weapons, no evokers, so Inaba Scoobies are free to cast buffs, everyone else _**stay the hell out of their way.**_"

I began the program.

Yosuke screamed as a tiny, insignificant portion of the power of the Universe passed through him.

Frankly, I don't blame him.

I'm just glad that I've got the Hollow Arcana back.

"YOU'VE GOT FORTY SECONDS!" I shouted, throwing a Boltgun to Adachi as Chie's body began to shudder as if having a fit. "Yukari, hold down her tongue!"

He caught it and began to open fire at Naoki. The Shadow leapt away and someone began to heal the Demi-Fiend as Junpei burst into flames and flew after the Shadow.

Adachi teleported onto his head and began to shoot at a window. Ichor burst from it and the Shadow began to fall to the ground. Mitsuru charged up the wall, leaving a trail of ice as she sliced upwards through the Shadow, black blood falling like rain as she kicked from the building, placing her evoker to her head as she fell.

"ERIS!" She shouted, pulling the trigger with an explosion in her mind.

A pale blue woman with long black hair burst from the clouds. She wore form-fitting, revealing gun-metal armour that clawed at her skin, leaving much of her on display. Metal, bat-like wings surrounded her as she clutched a golden apple in one claw, a malevolent, demonic trident in the other.

I couldn't help a slight smirk tug the corner of my mouth.

Looks like everyone learnt something in the abyss of time. Every single surviving member of S.E.E.S. is currently holding four Personae.

The goddess of strife slammed her trident into the Shadow's torso as Adachi appeared on the ground next to it in a cloud of bats. Grinning, he stamped on its throat and placed the Bolter to its head.

**DAKKADAKKA**

The Shadow turned into smoke and flew into the air. Adachi raised a hand and a shining blue card appeared just before the Shadow, rotating slowly as Erebus's blade slid through it. With the sound of breaking glass, the mighty armoured Hephaestus rammed an axe-like hammer into Erebus, launching it into the path of Mitsuru's blade. "BEGONE!" she shouted, placing the evoker to her skull and summoning Artemisia to create a cluster of ice spikes which stabbed through the Shadow's flesh, raising her feet so she slid down them expertly.

She put the evoker to her temple again to summon Eris, who drove her trident into the ice cluster, causing it to invert, stabbing Erebus a hundred times over as Adachi appeared above the Shadow, launching his bolter right into the centre.

Erebus burst from the ice with its blades, parrying Mitsuru's defences and slicing her right arm off at the shoulder as it flew by.

A claw of ice caught it by the back of the neck and slammed it into the ground- Mitsuru had forgone healing herself and created an artificial arm of ice to trap the Shadow.

Then a fist burst from her shoulder and through the ice; shattering it and slamming the Shadow's head further into the ground.

Lava burst from the ground under the Shadow as Mitsuru's eyes shined orange.

She put the evoker to her skull with her left hand as she flew into the air.

"**This ends now!**" she shouted, summoning the goddess of the hunt to cool the magma into a pillar of steaming black stone. She flipped through the air as Adachi appeared atop the pillar with his bolter aimed down the centre.

**DAKKA**

Adachi jumped as the Bolts from his gun shattered the pillar right to the bottom, creating a massive hole through the Darkness.

And the blue card under its chest.

"**BALROG!**" Adachi shouted as the massive black demon rose from the ground, the orange magma of its belly glowing through its black skin. Two curved, black horns protruded from under its white mane.

The demon roared as it cracked its burning whip around Erebus as it tried to heal the massive damage already inflicted upon it as Mitsuru landed, slicing her blade through the Shadow vertically.

Erebus teleported away, right into the path of the Bolt Adachi just fired. Its flesh exploded as several cards began to float in the air in front of it as the Shadow began to blindly launch a flurry of shuriken.

Izanagi-no-Ookami, Kamui, Amaterasu, Yamato-Takeru, Satan, Helel, Musashi, Siren, Odysseus and Magatsu Izanagi all rushed Erebus, dealing blow after blow upon it, ending in the mighty wrath of Marina's and Elizabeth's combined Armageddon.

"THE ENEMY'S DOWN!" Mitsuru shouted into the air as Junpei, Aigis and Naoki, ran up beside her. "LET'S FINISH THIS!"

Adachi grinned as he overlooked the crater where the recovering Shadow lay as Mitsuru's companions nodded to each other.

They charged.

"_**YOU'LL FALL BY MY HAND!**_"

Chie coughed up blood onto Yukari's hand as she settled down, almost is in response to the chaos occurring a few feet from us.

Yukari pulled her fingers out from her mouth as Chie opened her eyes. "Chie…" Yukari said with a grateful smile.

"Ow…" Chie groaned. "Wha…?"

"Chie?" Yosuke gasped, before collapsing on the ground.

"Not bad." I told him, standing up. "Most people would die from that kind of exposure to the Hollow Arcana, but I thought you could take it."

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

"DAMMIT MITSURU!" I shouted, twisting around as she stood around the crater with everyone. "I SAID FORTY SECONDS, NOT THIRTY!"

_**Perspective account for nothing**_

_**Everything in this world exists to wear you down**_

_**This entire world exists for the sake of cornering you**_

THREE LINES?

"EVERYONE GET THE HELL BACK!" I shouted.

The five of them got pushed back from the crater, all flying their different directions.

The Shadow rose from its hole. It had huge, bulging muscles, with long, black hair that flowed upwards. The white cloth that served as clothing rippled as if in an updraft.

The smile was gone.

Just two red eyes of hate.

Time for me to take action.

I shoved my arm down Yosuke's throat.

He gagged and Yukari shouted something, but I shoved another arm in and squeezed into the tiny space. He grabbed at his throat as his flesh bubbled and mutated, his clothes exploding into a black and red blaze as he fell onto all fours.

His hair shortened at the back, his fringe growing.

His t-shirt and jacket stopped burning, now a white shirt and a red tie.

A chain ran from his neck to his right wrist.

There was an Evoker in his hand.

My hand now.

"**Thanks for the loaner kid.**" I said through his mouth. "**Don't worry, you'll get it back at the end of the day.**"

I strode towards the Shadow with all the power I could manage. Let's see now, I've got the disadvantage of organs and bones, but I have a decent amount of spiritual power now.

Combined, this form can use more of the Universe than we could separately, but there is the risk if me actually digesting the kid if he spends too long in here.

Of course, since I only have about a minute left, that won't exactly be an issue.

I shoved the evoker down my trousers and charged at Erebus. It raised an arm and unleashed a shockwave, no, this isn't a blast.

The world behind me is dragging me back.

Hanged man.

Am I upside down, or is it just in my head?

That isn't hair falling up. It's a mass of horns to throw me off.

I'm not running along the concrete floor of Iwatodai bay.

I jumped to the right.

NOW I'm running along the concrete floor of Iwatodai bay.

Of course the effect was localised.

If it wasn't, the city would be underwater right now.

This guy is a gravity bender.

To anyone else, this would be a problem.

I swung a kick into its head- utterly crushing it under my shin.

It lifted a hand and grabbed the leg.

That spinning…

Ah.

Black Holes could be a problem.

I kicked on the chest and jumped back, sliding across the floor as it became a ceiling.

Now, let's see if I can still do this.

I summoned a bolt of lightning into my hand- still got Zeus's power.

I launched the storm.

Erebus blocked it with its arm, but I reached from the thunderbolt and grabbed the wrist.

"**Throwdown.**" I said with glee as I flipped the Shadow into the air and into the ground.

"**You know what this is, right?**" I asked the Shadow, pulling the evoker from my trousers. "**An Evoker. This isn't a method of summoning a Persona, this is so much more. Against things like you, it is the perfect weapon.**"

I put the muzzle to Erebus's head. "**A device that uses Nyx's feathers to induce so much mental pain, it splits the mind in order to make the soul manifest from the body- to humans, this summons a Persona.**"

I grinned as the red orbs in the Shadow showed fear.

_**LET US SEE WHAT IT DOES TO YOU**_

**BLAM**

Erebus screamed as twenty-one cards flew into the air. The Shadow convulsed as it changed into the massive, two-headed dog that it truly is.

I laughed, creating a cowboy hat specifically to wave into the air as I shouted with glee. "_**YOU KNOW HOW IT IS!**_" I shouted, getting to my feet and running from the Shadow. "_**Every card you eat is a new power!**__"_

There's a rule in demonic cannibalism.

If one demon consumes another, they will fuse.

The stronger one shall take a fragment of the weaker's power, strength, personality and memories.

Just look what Yosuke's doing to me.

So, in theory, I can end Erebus for good right here.

I shoved the Magician down my throat as the lumbering giant charged for the other cards. I twisted around and launched an invisible arm for the Priestess card, bringing it back to me to bite down.

I raised Yosuke's arm and pointed the other to the ground, creating an orange portal in the distance and a blue one close at hand.

I started shifting the orange portal around and using the arms to grab as many cards as I could- doesn't matter which ones, just as long as I get more than Erebus does.

The Shadow roared at me, launching a powerful white blast at me.

Assimilation, the power of the Empress.

Bugger.

I spat Yosuke out just as the beam consumed me.

Why the hell didn't I think of that…

* * *

"N-no…" Fuuka gasped. "No way…"

"Impossible…" Mitsuru managed. "IT'S NOT OVER!" she roared. "DESTROY IT! SAVE HIM!"

_**The Arcana is the means by which none is achieved**_

Their blood ran cold as Erebus stood massively before them, sprouting twenty-two black wings and white armour.

_**There is no meaning in our world, and no meaning in us who live there**_

_**We, meaningless, think of the world, knowing that there is no meaning there**_

_**This is even meaningless itself**_

Erebus grinned as he waved a hand over the mere mortals that stood in fear before him.

_**Yes, there is no Fate for us**_

_**Only those who are swallowed by ignorance and fear and miss a step fall into the rapid river called Fate**_

_**Your hero is dead **_

_**He's gone **_

_**In the Darkness, In the abyss, he lives on only in death**_

_**So, if you still wish to fight the inevitable, fight until the end**_

_**No matter what force opposes thee, never yield**_

_**When there is nothing left to lose, I WIN!**_

_**Just who the hell do you think I am?**_

_**I am a Shadow, the true self…**_

_**I am not Minato…**_

_**I am not the Universe…**_

_**I... AM... ME!**_

_**MINATOS THE SHADOW!**_

Erebus roared, falling to his knees as I forced his head to the ground.

_**And You Thought You Could Best ME?**_

I laughed as the Abyss' skull fractured with a web of cracks under my grip.

As Despair itself struggled to flee from my wrath.

_**KNOW DESPAIR, SON OF CHAOS**_

_**DEATH SHALL NOT TAKE YOU**_

_**ABANDON THE SIMULACRUM OF STRENGTH YOU HAVE STOLEN FROM MAN**_

_**I AM YOU**_

_**YOU ARE NOT ME**_

_**WE ARE NOT ONE**_

_**I AM HALF**_

_**YOU ARE NOTHING**_

The skull shattered, the Darkness was scattered, and I strode from the black mist of Erebus as the chain around my arm shot out to connect to the collar around Yosuke's neck.

I flexed my fingers.

If I cut my ties and walked away, I could live as a mortal human for a couple of years before ending.

Even without Minato, I have enough strength to fight on my own, thanks to Erebus.

You'd think a Primordial god would offer more strength, but he'd been losing a lot of power lately due to the lack of despair in the human race lately. He'd jump at the chance for a power-up and to kill the one causing him trouble.

I licked my lips.

Angelic.

No, this is more than a mere angel.

This is one of the great angels.

Leliel.

The Angel of the Night.

The Jaws of God.

Makes sense that he'd take the form of the embodiment of all Shadows.

I bunched my fingers into a fist.

So that's it.

The high angels are posing behind the Arcana masks to keep me occupied from something.

Sounds like fun.

I looked up at the twenty men, women and dog that survived this battle.

Smiles of disbelief.

Smiles of satisfaction.

Smiles of weariness.

Smiles of what-the-hell-just-happened?

I held a fist above my head in triumph.

Thunder cracked in the sky above.

_**MEMENTO MORI**_

We all looked up through the rain.

The black clouds completely covered the white sky.

No…

Those weren't clouds… those were _Shadows_.

Two massive arms, one on Port Island and the other in Iwatodai.

A colossal, bony grin and two massive red moons for eyes

Despair peered down from the sky, mocking us.

"No way…" Junpei gasped. "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME?"

Then came the weight. A crushing, turbulent pressure, crashing down on mind, body and soul.

A weight just like Nyx from her moon when He fought, years ago. When only the strength of the Universe itself stopped this pressure from forcing him down onto his knees.

This wasn't some angel knock-off. This Erebus is the real deal.

_THIS_ was the power of a primordial god.

I'm the only one still standing…

No way…

At least with Nyx we had the power to fight it.

At least with Nyx we had the time.

At least with Nyx I wasn't alone…

Alone…

* * *

The world flashed white.

He stood there, His hair white and blending with the white world around Him.

He smiled, lifting a single finger in the air.

Then He pointed it at his temple.

* * *

I blinked in the rain.

No way…

I looked down at the cold evoker in my hands.

Could that actually…?

I looked up as Erebus's massive primordial face came down to leer at me.

I smiled, raising the gun to my chin.

I'm not doing it like He did.

"**Persona.**" I said, pulling the trigger.

**BLAM**

* * *

Black and red glass flew around me as I held the evoker out to my side, a manic grin slashed across my face as my tie, shirt and hair blew in the wind.

The chain on my arm jangled as a foot materialised around my shoulder.

_**THOU ART I**_

_**AND I ART THOU**_

_**FROM THE SEA OF THY SOUL I COMETH**_

_**I AM JACOB**_

_**SUPPLANTER FROM THE WOMB  
**_

Jacob had wild dark hair around his head, barely covering his red eyes.

His skin was deep bone white, and wore a sleeveless black trenchcoat.

His powerful arms were covered in tribal tattoos, vermilion coloured markings on the right arm, and ultramarine ones on his left.

On his back was a symbol of a white skull, with two red quarter-gear rings below it, and a red semi-ring with twelve spikes on the outer rim above it.

It reached up into the sky and grabbed Erebus by the horns with both arms, then rammed its head into the god's.

I laughed as Erebus reeled back from the blow, then roared as Jacob- _**My Persona, **_brought his hands together and created a massive Boltgun in each hand and shoved them into each eye.

I stopped laughing.

"_**Kill for the living, Kill for the dead****.**_" I whispered. Erebus whimpered just as the white sky began to fade into black

I pointed my index finger through Jacob's head, the line between his two bolters and aimed between his eyes.

I smiled.

I winked.

"_**Bang****.**_"

_**DRAKKAKKAKKAKKOOM**_

* * *

I was sat in a bar next to Yosuke, Teddie, Daisuke, with Seta standing across the bar opposite us as the world bustled.

Needless to say, they were a bit rattled.

"What the hell was that?" Seta asked.

"What?" Daisuke asked, twisting around to see. "What's going on?"

The bar shook.

**BOOM**

The dim blue light turned bright as the music stopped. "Man, an earthquake?" Daisuke shouted as someone screamed.

"What, this isn't right…" Teddie muttered, looking around the dim chaos of the bar and suddenly noticing me. "AH!"

I grinned and waved, before falling face-down on the bar.

* * *

I heard some soothing, very familiar music.

Although, it's different to how I remember.

Faster, with drums.

Reminds me of rain...

"Well, this certainly is a surprise." A familiar voice chuckled.

_What?_

I groggily opened my eyes.

Blue.

A blue nightclub.

Not the bar I was just in.

And I'm lying on a table, not at the bar itself.

I'm on an upper balcony, with the dance floor of a nightclub going on below.

Sounds like a party.

A blonde woman in a tight blue suit placed some drinks on the table.

I grabbed my skull and pulled myself upright to see who I was drinking with.

_WHAT?  
_

Igor chuckled at my surprise, as if I were a first time customer.

Come to think of it… I am.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, my dear young man…" he chuckled.

Igor chuckled, then turned to the man on my right. "And it is a pleasure to have you join us as well."

"The hell...?" Yosuke asked in disbelief.

_**What.**_

* * *

**-}+{-**

* * *

_**SEE YOU ALL IN TWO YEARS! THANKS FOR EVERYTHING SO FAR, AND LOOK FORWARD TO CHAPTER THREE!**_

_**AND IF YOU WANT TO THANK ME, KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ELDER TURNER!**_

* * *

While I'm here, here's the soundtrack order and timing. I'm putting it here to avoid spoilers, for those who want to read it again.

Beginning: Disquiet (Devil Survivor)  
Lion Attack: Zone Time (Persona 4)  
The Angel's Appearance: Mithos (Tales of Symphonia), The Voice Someone Calls (Persona 3)  
Erebus appearance & battle Pt. 1 [Fool]: Darkness (Persona 3: FES)  
Erebus battle Pt. 2 [Magician]: Wheeling Corby (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn)  
Erebus battle Pt. 3 [Priestess]: White Requiem (BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger)  
Erebus battle Pt. 4 [Empress]: Wiping All Out (Persona Music Live: Wel City Tokyo)  
Erebus battle Pt. 5 [Emperor]: Before the Mighty One (Arc Rise Fantasia)  
Berserk Yosuke: The Corrupted (Kingdom Hearts 2)  
Erebus battle Pts. 6-8 [Hierophant, Lovers, and Chariot]: Worth Dying For (Radiant Mythology 2)  
Erebus battle Pt. 9 [Hermit] In My Sprit, Fate, The Aggressor  
Erebus battle Pt. 10 [Fortune] Dark Cloud "The Ceremony"  
Erebus battle Pt. 11 [Strength] Soul Hackers Theme  
Erebus Battle Pt. 12 [Hanged] Deep Night  
Erebus Battle Pt. 13 [Death] Nyx  
EREBUS: Deep Darkness  
Summoning Jacob: Kimi to Taiyou ga Shinda Hi  
Bar, Velvet Room, Outro: Aria Of The Soul

So, for reals this time:

_**SEE YOU ALL IN TWO YEARS! THANKS FOR EVERYTHING SO FAR, AND LOOK FORWARD TO CHAPTER THREE!**_

_**AND IF YOU WANT TO THANK ME, KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ELDER TURNER!**_


	3. Unwritten Contract

Hi. How've you been?

* * *

**-}+{-**

* * *

I stood up from my seat. The woman stepped back, away from the table. Form-fitting blue trousers, Form-fitting blue waistcoat, Form-fitting blue short-sleeved blouse, blue tie and tight blue gloves. Platinum blonde hair and yellow eyes.

There's definitely a theme with these people.

"There's no need to feel quite so agitated..." Igor assured me as I started walking away from the waitress.

"Time doesn't exist here." I pointed out, collapsing onto a blue sofa near the table. "So I get to do something I never get to do."

I rolled over into the cushioning. "Yosuke, this is Igor." I pointed out, gesturing randomly with my thumb. "Igor, this is your new guest. And since Shadows can't come here and this is clearly a mistake, I'm going to nap until you finish with your thing."

Igor chuckled. "Please forgive me." He said to Yosuke, then turned to me. "But I can assure you, no one comes here, except by invitation."

"Napping." I pointed out.

"Okay, seriously?" Yosuke shouted. "I've really had it up to here today, what the HELL Is Going ON HERE?"

"NAPPING!" I shouted, pulling a cushion over my head. "And Turn Down That Music!"

Igor chuckled. "I'm sure he'll calm down in a minute." He assured Yosuke. "In the meantime, let _me_ introduce myself..."

Wait.

No, that does not feel good.

Oh no oh no oh no roll onto the floor and

"HHHWWRRUUAAAGH"

Splish.

I coughed, and I could feel everyone looking at me.

But I have bigger problems.

"Igor..." I whispered, slowly standing up as I wiped my mouth. "How the hell can I vomit...?"

The waitress immediately pulled a towel from behind her waist and began to mop the mess I just made.

And I want one of those drinks on the table more than I'm comfortable with.

"Here." Another waitress, similar in dress and appearance but still someone else, said as she ran up the stairs with another tray. "Drink this." She instructed, presenting the single glass to me. "You're very dehydrated and you're not well. You need to drink."

"How can I be dehydrated..." I asked, fighting down another uprising. "If I'm not alive?"

I span around, almost knocking the newcomer down the stairs. "Isn't That Right?!" I shouted at Igor, starting to panic. "Shadows don't perspire! We don't Respire! We don't need to eat, drink, sleep or poop Because!" I shouted, arms slammed on the table. "We. Are Not. Alive."

Igor smiled viciously. "Please, have a seat." He invited, Yosuke slinking away from my empty chair. "After all, Shadows cannot enter this space..."

**"Don't Screw With Me Old Man."** I snarled through gritted teeth. **"I Am A Shadow. I Am Not Human. Don't You Dare Suggest Otherwise."**

"Very well." He said, turning to Yosuke. "It has been a while since I last saw you, but I cannot recall ever meeting you in person." Igor bowed. "My name is Igor, Mister Hanamura. I seem to recall Mister Souji referring to me multiple times in his conversations with you."

**"Don't. Ignore. Me."** I growled.

"Alright, Arisoto?" Yosuke asked, before standing up and yanking on the chain.

I crashed into the chairs.

"Calm the hell down, drink the fluid, and sit down and listen to what the guy's going to explain." He ordered as I pushed myself up.

Me calm down? Could make a comment, but won't.

Hm, my forehead's warm and sticky.

I touched the scrape.

Black.

I still bleed Ichor then.

I shook my hand dry-ish and put the chairs upright, then sat down. "Fine." I said. "I'll tell you when to fastforward."

Igor shook his head at me as Yosuke sat down. "I already know about the whole Wild Card, Persona, Fusion, dream and reality and so on." He told Igor as one of the girls placed a drink in front of me. "I take it that I'm here since I'm chained to him."

I downed the drink as Igor began to talk. "You were summoned here as you are both bound in a most literal fashion." he said. "As you know, only those bound by a contract can enter into this place. You agreed to take this one into your care," Igor said, then turned from Yosuke to face me. "And in return, you agreed to provide your attendant with your protection."

"I never agreed to that." Yosuke and I said in unison.

"But the chains are there, are they not?" Igor replied. "A contract made under duress is a contract nonetheless. It was never your intention to restore the young lady, was it?" he asked.

Yosuke looked at me in silence.

"It is true that I only decided to attempt healing after I arrived at the situation." I responded. "But that decision was mine. I am not a magic wish machine that responds to whoever I'm chained to. Adachi is proof of that."

"Of course." Igor said, drawing a card and handing it to Yosuke. "And I believe that this is yours."

Susano-o No Mikoto.

"My Thanatos, right?" Yosuke asked. Dang, they know about Aspects?

"You will find use for my services in future." Igor confirmed. "But please hold onto that for now."

Yosuke grunted as he put the Persona into his pocket. "Right, I'm good for now." he said. "What's up with this guy so we can go home."

Igor turned. "Enantiodromia." He stated. "The act of the Self bringing the Shadow to the Self's level, retaining awareness of the Shadow, but preventing assimilation."

"Uh, Japanese?" Yosuke asked in confusion as I gritted my teeth.

"He's rejecting me as his Shadow, but instead of letting me lash out like a normal Shadow, he's dragging me to a level where he can just cut ties with me and have done with." I explained, keeping the rage down. "Like with Ted."

"Precisely." Igor explained. "Although your friend was, in fact, assimilated. Just, not with his own Self."

That raised eyebrows. "News to me." I said, grabbing the second drink. Imagine orange juice, only saltier. Zero amount of booze, plenty of electrolytes.

"You, on the other hand, are on the way to becoming _your_ Self." Igor explained, placing a card onto the table.

Fool. 0

"The time will come where you and he will stand together with no dependence on the other." Igor continued. "Until that point, he will bring you higher and higher until you become that which you never before were..."

The Velvet Room began to fade into white. "Till we meet again..."

* * *

Be human.

That's the only thought that was in my head as I opened my eyes.

Okay, this is meant to be a hospital, but it isn't.

Wait.

This is Gekkoukan highschool.

And this is the old music room.

I stood up to move, but dead weight stopped me at the arm.

Yosuke's still sleeping.

Okay.

And there's other people in the room.

...

I don't know their names.

...

Damn. I don't know their names.

That's not good.

I know everyone's name.

I can still see who they are. I know who each person is. I know who likes who, who hates what, and what dirty little secrets they hold.

But I can't scan their names.

Right.

Enantiodromia.

* * *

I carried the unconscious Yosuke through the school. There was a huge hustle as officials were treating the wounded, people trying to find one another, police trying to provide explanations, medics trying to treat the wounded, children crying...

I put my hand on one child's shoulder. "Your father is upstairs." I told her. "Go down the corridor, up the stairs, walk towards the fountain. Third door to the right. He's gonna make it." I smiled into her crying eyes. "Go."

She didn't need to be told twice. She bolted as Yosuke started to wake up.

"I'm going to put you down, so don't freak out." I told him, resting him gently onto his feet. "We're in a school that's currently being used as an evacuation shelter, and we're going to try to sort this mess out."

Yosuke turned around, clearly looking for Chie. "She'll be in the actual hospital." I told him. "That's where she was before the fight. She'll still be there now."

Yosuke faced me. "Then let's go!" He said, taking off at a run.

He stopped as the invisible chain went taut. "People here need help." I pointed out as someone carried a wounded friend past me, looking for a doctor.

Yosuke touched the one with an injure, pumping him with Diarama as his friend rushed past. "Chie needs _me._" He pointed out. "_I_ need Chie."

I nodded. "Alright." I said.

What am I going to tell Yukari?

* * *

Not sure if I can still shift my perspective to see how they're doing, but either way, we're walking to the hospital. Road bridge was destroyed, and rescue work is still going on.

Judging by the smell, it's... three? Three in the morning? Yeah, probably. Yosuke's phone's broken, and I don't have a timekeeping device on me.

Wait.

"Yosuke, I'm gonna hijack your skills to send out a homing signal for Fuuka." I told him. "I need yours because I'm still building a digestive system."

Yosuke looked at me, then nodded. "Alright." he said, handing me a blue card.

Susano-o.

It looks down.

"You're not feeling your usual self right now." I pointed out to him. "Can't really blame you though."

The Persona card blazed green in my grip as I sent out pulses of energy.

Completely invisible unless you're awesome like Fuuka or Rise.

Alright, spirit signals. What should it say?

Ahah. Got it.

-=Hey Fuuka you so fine you so fine you blow my mind hey Fuuka!=-

...

...

Three...

Two...

_~Hello?~_ Fuuka asked in our ears. _~Is that Yosuke and the one who saved us earlier?~_

That would have hurt me Fuuka, except she doesn't know who I am, so that's fine.

"Yeah." I said aloud, trusting Fuuka had audio on us. "We need a way off this rock and onto the mainland. Can you arrange that for us and find a way for us to regroup?"

_~Seta-san's already coming to pick up Yosuke.~_ Fuuka explained. _~I'll alert him to your position.~_

"Thank's Fuuka." I said, walking over to a nearby bench. "Seta drives by now, yeah?"

"Yeah, but there's no way he's going to drive here." Yosuke replied, sitting down. "Not with the bridge like that."

I shook my head. "We just need to get to the hospital from the mainland." I explained. "It's gonna be rough traffic by road, so we need to get to where Shinji is and he can dragon us the rest of the way."

Yosuke looked at me like I was crazy. "You've never been to a disaster area before, have you?" I asked him. "This is gonna be like that tsunami, only with less water. Just be grateful the Japanese are organised, otherwise we'd have riots by now."

No, he's looking slightly behind me like the person behind me is crazy.

Man, Shadow powers have made me lazy.

I twisted around to grab wrist and wrench it away from me, only to get a large claw around my face.

"Friend Seta." I reminded him. "You're not supposed to claw friends."

"I hated you the moment I laid eyes on you." He pointed out.

Loathing, unadulterated loathing. For your face, your voice your clothing.

"I saved Kanji's life and got you off a murder charge."

"And I held up my end of that deal."

"I saved your life just now."

"I don't pay for my pizza when it's late."

"I healed Chie."

"It was a group effort."

"Igor watched you in the shower and I'm your only way back into the Velvet Room."

Claw remained.

"Alright, you get to live today." Seta decided.

And now fleshy hand.

"Okay, the hell?" Yosuke asked. "Can we all stop jerking around and get to the hospital already?"

Seta took his hand off my face. "TV's right there." He pointed out, showing us the large screen displaying news on the most recent disaster to hit Japan.

Us.

Well, not specifically us three, but the aftermath of-

You know what?

Forget it.

Into the TV we go.

* * *

I had to blink once I got there.

I just had to blink.

"A warthog." I said. "You replicated the Warthog."

"Ultimate offroad experience." Seta pointed out, hopping into the drivers seat. "You guys can fight over who gets to sit in front."

Me and Yosuke looked at each other.

I dibbed the turret.

* * *

Within minutes we were cruising across the grasslands, Yosuke drumming the dashboard while singing the theme song off-key. "So, this is how Nat got here so quick." I commented from the back. "You've been importing Jakkai goods into the Hollow Forest."

"Jakkai, my ass." Seta laughed. "We got the plans for this baby from the source. Also, Cortana? Way hotter in person... so to speak."

Hm, that's an interesting twist. I've been missing out on the latest gossip.

Seta kept his eye firmly on the lack of road as we rose over a small hill.

"Do you know how many are dead so far?" He asked me.

"Three hundred and eighty four." I told him. "The emergency services only found two hundred so far. Yesterday I would have been able to tell you their names."

"Jun is dead." He told me.

"I know." I said. "He was a good man."

"You're not going to bring him back are you."

Statement, not a question.

"Can't." I said. "Closest anyone's ever managed was a homunculi. Except Chidori Iori."

He raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Junpei's wife." I explained. "She only remembered her Persona last night, so she's pretty messed up at the moment. I doubt she could manage that even at her prime though."

Seta nodded, then came the awkward silence.

...

...

Well, might as well see what I can still do.

I looked at my hand and rotated through different skin colours. I can do that.

I felt pain in my head and abdomen when I tried to shrink more than a couple of inches. Can't do that anymore.

Let's try Gender...

Well, that worked, only now my chest is too tight to breathe.

Hollow Arcana to turn my shirt into a blouse, and Yosuke yelped in pain.

"DUDE! WHAT THE HE-!?" He stopped when he saw the young female in the back seat.

Oh yeah, Hollow Arcana hurts whoever I'm chained to. Whoops?

"Just testing." I said, but still too tired to morph back. Alright, lemme breathe...

"Alright, what the hell is that?" Yosuke asked, trying not to panic.

"Me shapeshifting." I told him. "I can still do it, but it takes more effort to morph clothes now that my powers limited."

"Wh-whatever, just turn back." He said, blushing as he turned away to look through the passenger window-hole.

"Nope, tired." I retorted. "Besides, funnier that way."

"AT LEAST PUT SOME UNDERWEAR ON!" He shouted, not even turning to look at me.

* * *

So, why am I a girl now?

No reason, except it's easier for everyone to not associate me with Minato for their second impression of me this way.

...

And it's funnier.

* * *

...

Long drive is boring with nothing to shoot.

Alright, let's try this perspective switch thing. I really hope I can still do that.

* * *

(/`)

* * *

Yukari's in the hospital, treating seven patient's at once while Keisuke runs about behind her.

She has had one rough night.

I mean, full morning to midnight shift, then crazy boss battle where she loses her arm, almost loses her sister, finds out her ex may not be 100% dead, and now she has to keep dozens of people alive.

...

Eh, she can handle it.

Let's see what else is on.

* * *

(/`)

* * *

Chie's walking home with Yukiko...

Well, I say home...

Looks more like they're headed for Shinji's place.

* * *

(/`)

* * *

And Mitsuru's helicoptered into Iwatodai. Of course she has.

* * *

(/`)

* * *

"So, it looks like we're regrouping at Shinjiro Aragaki's." I told the Driver, tired from omniscience. "You know where it is?"

Seta nodded. "We'll there in a second." He said, making a turn over a small hill.

"So, how do you organise your escape routes?" I asked him.

"Teddie showed us the trick." Yosuke replied. "We can all do it now. Warp points and everything."

Hmm, nice.

Well, morphed back into masculinity, adjusting my clothing to match the change in stature. Yosuke barley grunted this time around.

"Seta, hit the accelerator." I told him. "Yosuke, get your persona's ready, I'll man the turret.

They heard the battle cry before they got chance to argue.

Blackness poured over the upcoming mountainside.

Shadows.

A helluva lot of them.

Seta sighed. "Roadkill incoming. Yosuke, hit the switch." Glancing back at me he smirks. "This isn't our first rodeo."

A panel lowers on the front of the warthog and folds out revealing row upon row of retractable spikes.

I stood up and grabbed the handles of the Turrets, Yosuke drawing an assault rifle from next to his seat.

These Shadow raids aren't uncommon then, if they're that prepared.

That rifle is not Jakkai issue.

"SUSANO-O!" Yosuke shouted, smashing the card with the barrel of his gun to cast a Sukukaja onto the Warthog.

I aimed the barrel of the turret as we approached the screaming wall, and pulled the triggers as the jeep plowed through the mass of black flesh.

DAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKA

I swerved to dodge the flying torso, continuing my sweep of the horde.

DAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKA

I love miniguns.

"You know, we tried to swap in a gauss cannon once?!" Seta yelled as he skidded into another soon-to-be puddle, "Packed a hell of a punch but it was just too slow! Shadows sure looooove that safety in numbers shtick!"

"OI!" I shouted over the noise of the turret. "I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK!"

"WHAT?!" Yosuke shouted, clearly struggling to listen over all the noise.

"HE SAID YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE!" Seta shouted as we cleared the maw. "NOW THROW THOSE GRENADES!"

I jumped, spinning to land onto the headrests and began firing back onto the survivors. Grenades flew over my head, exploding huge numbers of the Shadows as we sped away.

"Hold on Tight." Seta advised, before driving us over a canyon.

KASHUNK! And we landed on the other side of the cliff, me rolling between Seta's and Yosuke's seats from the impact, much to their amusement.

Yosuke punched me between the legs, so I kicked him in the jaw and rolled back to my seat.

"Alright Molotov." Seta said as we rolled to a stop. "If I know my Fool social circles, and I do, we're about to enter one screwed up party with a lot of history with each other."

"Don't worry, S.E.E.S. are professionals." I assured him. "No bad history."

"Yeah, you see this thing?" Yosuke asked, pointing to a screen on the dashboard. "That's the BS detector. You just broke the scale."

"Never walk into a minefield without a map." Seta nodded. "And ideally someone to walk a couple steps in front of you. On a side note, the person walking in front of _me_ will be _you_. What's the deal with these people?"

Tch. "Fine then." I said. "Junpei got hit on by one of your school teachers, and let on married a girl who repeatedly tried to kill him, was then held prisoner by us for several months, then took a bullet for him once she escaped and died in his arms. She got better."

I could see his eyebrow furrow already. "Shinjiro killed Kenjamin's mother during a battle with a Shadow. He left the team and turned to drugs to suppress the pain. Came back later, and So did Kenjamin. Shinji's best friend and Kenjamin's role model then died protecting them from a psychopathic gunman. Aigis is a battle droid who gained her own soul by falling in love with Minato. He then died. I then gave her the power to shift between robot and human body, but she thinks Minato did it. Minato dated Yukari, Chie's step-sister. Mitsuru fell in love with Minato was well, so I possessed Minato's body and slept with her. After Minato died, I told Yukari that Minato did it, then broke up with both of them. Yukari tried to patch things up with Minato, but I messed that up by the body dying ten seconds into the conversation. Oh, and Marina is a Fool and a Wildcard like yourself, though she never officially joined S.E.E.S. since she came over _after_ fighting Nyx. She's Minato's cousin, and lives with Shinjiro. They have a thing for each other. The only normal members of S.E.E.S. are Fuuka and Koromaru. And that's only because Fuuka got over her crush on Minato and her abysmal self-esteem."

"And Koromaru?" Seta asked.

"He's the dog with the Persona you were fighting alongside last night."

"...Ah."

"Yosuke. They have a dog too." Seta reiterated, wooden.

"Ichi isn't a dog, man."

"Foxes and dogs and robots and bears. I thought we were done with this crap."

Yosuke sighed. "Let's just go, shadow-dude. He'll be mopey like this for at least ten minutes."

"Wait, scratch that." I said, planting my fist into my open palm."The Hito-Shura works in Shinjiro's restaurant."

"Hito-Shura?"

"He goes by Naoki Kashima now."

Seta's eyes widened, then narrowed. "I hate you all."

I looked from Yosuke to Seta and back again before asking "What'd I say?"

* * *

**-}+{-**

* * *

Welcome to 2013.

It's good to be back.


	4. Freedom No One Asked For

SO! An explanation is in order.

Remember that I started a 'mini' mission, back in December 2010? Where I served as a missionary but not my official mission, which started in April 2011 and would end April 2013? I posted FES chap 2 during the gap between those.

So, turns out those four months counted towards my two years, so my mission was over, whether I liked it or not.

So, I'm back.

Why the slow updates? I've been busy getting my life back on track. Friends to catch up on, jobs to seek out, houses to clean, mangas to read, etc.

But hey, here I am, ready to deliver the epic I have been preparing for the last two years, right?

Wrong.

At the start of my mission, I tried to write. After a few months of producing poop, I figured out I had to make a decision.

Keep planning stories, or drop the whole thing altogether and put all my focus into spreading the word.

So I threw away my notebooks and wouldn't even think about Persona. At all. Zilch.

It worked, I focused pretty well.

Of course, now I'm here, no notes other than my previous ideas which, to be honest, weren't that great in retrospect.

You probably would have enjoyed it, actually. Minatos and pals galavanting around the world fighting and devouring demons respective of arcana until a cumulative inter-world war with time travel involved, but meh. Weak.

So, let's see what I can throw together at the drop of a hat!

Normally, such a statement would be worrisome, but my Beta just pointed out that Ive already proven myself as more than capable of doing just that.

Now, I've officially ended Rebuild, check the AN at the bottom of chap 37 to find out why.

Open two internet tabs, one with chap 37 of Rebuild, and one with chap 37 of Fairly English Story.

Skip both down to the point where the mask starts growing onto Minatos' face.

Read the two accounts. Not the differences between the narration of the same event from the same pair of eyes from two different narrators.

I'll let you draw your own conclusion, but it's best you check that before reading on this chapter. It'll make events here make some sense.

And to pre-emptively answer your questions. Persona 4 Arena is not FEStory canon. So no Labrys. Or other such things.

* * *

**=}+{=**

* * *

_I never wanted freedom. The loyal slave learns to love the lash.  
Not many people really want freedom, although they always protest otherwise.  
Freedom always comes, of necessity, with the freedom to take the consequences.  
Indeed, it is the freedom upon which all the other are based._

* * *

I stepped through the TV screen with Yosuke, following Seta into the lounge and almost tripping over a sleeping Koromaru,

Quick scan tells me that Shinji's still up, sitting in his office, Marina and Kenjamin asleep in their rooms.

Naoki's cleaning up downstairs, talking to Mitsuru while Fuuka guided more people here.

Knock on the door, And they sneak Chie and Yukiko in.

Aigis is in the bathroom, treating herself. Teddie's trying not to make himself noticed.

Kenji and Rio are on their way, And Kazushi's stuck in traffic with Elizabeth.

No sign of Yukari- she's still at the hospital. Of course she is, the place is jam packed.

Junpei is miles away, he won't be coming any time soon. Same goes for Chidori, and Rise. Inaba group is still way over there.

Least I got that skill still going for me.

Which reminds me.

"Seta." I said, him turning towards me. "Nanako was awake for last night, and saw Kanji and Funky fight a load of Shadows with Namatame. She's safe." I pointed out before he raised his voice. "I need you to get a message to your uncle at a sensible hour before he leaves for work and get him to approach her about the subject Today." I emphasised. "Tell him to get her to open up to him, and he needs to believe what she's gonna tell him otherwise it might just mess her up because she is way too scared to start that conversation."

He looked at me, then glared.

"I am not getting Nanako involved in this." I told him. "Someone else has and she needs to be kept out of this mess."

He nodded, and Yosuke calmed down.

"Right." I said, stepping out of the room and into the corridor. "I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone human right now, so I need a couple of hours to sort my head out otherwise things will go wrong very quickly. Yosuke, you and Mitsuru are to explain what you guys know already to everyone else."

"What?" he snapped. "I know less about this mess than you do!"

"And I'm not going to talk to anyone until everyone gets here." I pointed out. "In fact, I'll probably be eating, sleeping, pooping or doing other fleshy body functions until I figure out what's going on myself... look out the window guys."

They both turned around to look outside.

It was snowing.

In april.

Bear in mind, this place barely rains, it's so warm.

"Hey, get over here." Shinji shouted from the corridor, leaning through a doorway on his chair. "I need you to look at something."

Alright, everyone's a little calmer about this whole mess than I was expecting.

I walked over, and Shinji had a word processor document open.

[ Wednesday, April 16, 2014. ]

[ MEMO. ]

Quick glances of the document was.. interesting. Talked about Bad Wolf, summary of the battle against Leliel last night, although it said Erebus on the document. Talks about me being Minato's shadow. Talked about the Homo-daemonic symbiotic-mitosis inside the teeth. Talked about what we knew about Veritas de Sköll.

Talked about the Dark Hour. Talked about Tartarus. Talked about the midnight channel, the TV world. Talked about how Akihiko was killed, yet seems to be back and is now refereeing, and Seta's ability to morph into his personae. Talked about Nyx and Ameno Sagiri. Talked about Izanami and the deep dive- wait, what?

Focused on that more. March 31st, 2010. The S.E.E.S. dorm was trapped in a time loop. Knew about that. A being known as Metis attacked dorm. Knew about that. Shinji killed her.

Did not see that coming.

Why the hell was David in that time loop?

He took them on a journey through everyone's subconscious?

That's how they obtained multiple personae?

David was brought by Minato to help everyone find truth? I never did that.

Minato kept a record of his dealings with everyone? In reformed Norse?

He gave his life to seal Erebus from getting Nyx, and will stay there until humanity no longer desires its destruction.

...

...

"Am I missing something?" Shinji asked me as I wiped my hair.

"I put you in a time loop to go through each other's memories to rebuild the team and come to terms with Minato's death, leading in the explanation about Erebus..." I whispered. "What the hell was David doing there..?"

"Minato's friend from England?" Shinji asked me. "You're his Shadow, right? Don't you know everything he does?"

"Apparently he can hide things from his subconscious..." I muttered. "How the hell does someone do that- he's Minato. Of course he can do that."

Shinji sighed as Yosuke considered voicing his confusion. "Anything you want to add?" Shinji asked me, turning back to the document.

"For now?" I asked. "Reclassify the demon we fought as Leliel, posing as Erebus. Erebus came afterwards, and was sent back when I summoned Jacob."

"Right." Shinji grunted, going over and typing it up. "Everyone's either asleep or downstairs." he explained. "We've agreed not to start the discussion until these memos are distributed, so we're all on the same page. Junpei won't be able to make it, and Kujikawa's on the other side of Japan. Everyone else will be here for a sensible hour. Go socialise."

I nodded. I forgot just how... competent S.E.E.S. were, even without me and Minato. We were so much of a one-man show, we- or at least I- kept forgetting just how much Mitsuru and Shinjiro actually ran everything.

I was just there to kill things and get the new info from my various sources. Mitsuru and Shinji were the brains of the operation.

"You're the boss." I told him, turning around to Yosuke. "Chie just arrived. She looks okay."

Yosuke nodded, then turned to Seta. "Coming?" he asked.

"I'll stay here with Shinjiro-san." Seta replied, taking the second seat at the desk. "Call me if you need anything."

"Right." Yosuke nodded, heading off at a run before falling backward with a "GLURK!"

Right, we're still chained to each other. "I think we only get a few feet of distance between each other." I pointed out, then set out to follow him."

* * *

I did a quick inventory check over what was going on as we headed down the stairs. Marina has a lot of high-levelled Personae, but she doesn't have the same amount of sheer spiritual power to use it for extended periods of time like the others. Kenjamin, well, he used a hell of a lot of power against Priestess. He deserves rest.

And Aigis is trying to repair both a biological body and a mechanical body. Not an easy task. I'd help, except my Hollow Arcana skills are kind of limited-

You know what? I'm sick of this Hollow Arcana business. It is SUCH a huge misnomer.

I'm redubbing it Alter Angel, effective immediately. That's what I'm calling it, but I can guarantee that everyone will still continue calling it Hollow Arcana, and I'll probably backslide as well, but I have a point to prove.

Alter Angel. The power to overwrite reality by the power of one's insanity.

Job done.

Now to face the masses.

* * *

Had to sprint to keep up with Yosuke's charge for Chie. Everyone's happy they're back together.

"'Sup Minatos." Naoki waved.

"Hey Hito-Shura." I replied back. "Can you run to the kitchen and grab something for me? Apparently I need to eat now."

That raised an eyebrow, but he got to his feet as I sat down at a nearby table.

"Alright, last thing I remember was suddenly sitting in a bar with Yosuke then passing out." I announced to anyone who cared. "Next thing I'm in Gekkoukan. What'd I miss?"

"Everyone returned to the location they were when Veritas De Sköll began." Mitsuru explained, moving over to my table and standing next to Yukiko and Chie. "Within the next fifteen seconds, all the damage from the night's battle manifested itself on the city, almost as if the entire ordeal had been a dream, only for fraudsters to replicate the damage and fatalities to convince us it was real."

"There's something else..." Yukiko added, reaching into her bag and withdrawing some red cloth from within- oh.

Chie withdrew a green, bloodstained dress from her bag. "This was in my hospital room." She explained. "Yukari found one in her locker too."

"Shinjiro and Naoki-san both found tuxedos in their possession after the battle, despite wearing their normal clothing." Mitsuru continued. "I myself found no such objects in my possession, as I did not take part in the battle against Fortune. It's almost as if the Shadow wants us to know it existed."

"Demon." I corrected. "That was a demon, not a Shadow. Big difference."

"Demons have class." Naoki smirked as he passed me a bowl of left-over noodles. "Shadows are just left-over bits of psyche."

"Thanks." I muttered, grabbing the chopsticks and getting my fingers right. Hm, I'm pretty sure I knew how to do this once.

"Oh, uh, hey." Chie announced awkwardly. "Uh, so, Yukari kinda explained it, and Yukiko did again on the way here, but... what are you exactly?"

Aaand that made a potentially good meal awkward.

Well, fair question deserves a fair answer.

"Alright, I'll tell you, but first I want you to imagine an entity, and this will explain just what I am Chie." I said, sighing. "I want you to imagine a being with a similar kind of ability to Seta Souji. Can you do that?" I asked her.

"Uh, sure?" Chie asked, thinking that she knew where I was going with that.

"Now imagine that this being, instead of feeling unloved by his parents, had them both killed in front of him when he was seven years old, only for him seconds later to go against a being of darkness so powerful that Izanami-no-ookami would cower before it." I told her, glaring right into her eyes. "This seven year old boy, with no knowledge of his abilities, his dead parents in a car behind him, now absorbs this entity and traps it in his own psyche for the next ten years. This gives him horrific nightmares and a constant, internal struggle not to be annihilated from within and kill every living creature on the planet. He's seven years old, fresh orphan, similar power to Seta Souji. Are you with me so far?"

"Y-yes?"

"Good." I told her. "Now imagine that his little sister, his only anchor to sanity, dies the night he lets grandfather look after her while he goes off with grandmother. On top of this, due to trauma caused by absorbing Death incarnate, he can no longer exhibit any emotion he genuinely feels other than a face of absolute boredom. Compiled with the constant whisperings of Death in the back of his mind, this boy begins to doubt his own humanity, and attempts suicide, before getting shipped off to another country. The boy is now eight. Are you with me so far?"

Only a nod this time.

"Excellent. Every day, at a point between three and four in the afternoon, the world stops for one hour, and everyone around him transforms into a coffin." I told her. "The sky turns red and the sun burns black. Water turns into blood, and the walls bleed. Electricity stops, nothing moves for the space of an hour except for him, and at the end of this hour everything goes back to normal and people ask him why he's crying in a corner clutching a blanket. The boy has yet to discover the abilities of Persona or even enter middle school. With me so far?"

Silence, then a murmur or agreement.

"Despite the constant bullying for his dazed look, foreign nationality, and his mental insecurities, this boy manages to make a few friends. One of these friends begins to experience this world with him. They have fun, exploring this demented world, but everything turns sour after they steal a guitar and several kilograms of cocaine from the back of a car."

Gulps.

"Within a few months, these boys, barely beginning puberty, are in an industrial estate with guns to their heads. The boy, the entity you are imagining, his friend who he shared this world with, and a few other friends, in the hands of drug dealers who intend to make a point about what happens when kids steal from them. One friend takes a bullet through his skull and is dumped in the river. The boy isn't fourteen yet."

"The entity you are picturing manages to scramble away with a bullet hole in one of his kneecaps after caving a dealer's skull in with a brick." I continued, painting a vivid image into their craniums. "Two of them track the entity down, drag him back to the other boys, only one of which is still alive, severely injured. One dealer puts a gun to the entities head and pulls the trigger."

Time for a mouthful of noodles. Chew. Swallow.

"A red beast charges from behind the boy and tears each of the drug dealers into pieces." I told them. "The police are baffled. This must have been the work of a lion, or a bear, or some other creature that you just didn't find in that area, but even then the carnage was just too severe. The only survivors was this entity I am describing to you and his friend called David. You'll read about him in the memo."

"After recovering in hospital, these two boys go to an advanced musical academy in Germany where they both received scholarships for their outstanding musical talents." I told everyone. "In this place, they became involved in games involving the psyche and the occult, including one by the name of Deep Dive, where one enters the very depths of one's subconscious and can meddle, changing their very selves as they wish."

"During their first summer back, however, these boys get involved in gang violence because of actions gang members threatened to take towards the Entity's close cousin." I continued explaining. "The violence escalated. It grew to the point where the entity took the life of many gang members. The preferred tactic was to wait until this time where everyone became coffins, then drag the target out of their coffin, murdering them during their disorientation before fleeing the scene before time returned. These dozens of murders were classed by the police as gang violence, with the entity's involvement never being suspected by the police or by the enemy gang. Bear in mind," I pointed out, "That a hell of a lot of this was suppressed by him and he did not like to talk about it. Most of this did not even make it to the very in-depth file the Kirijo organisation had on this entity."

Quick glances at Mitsuru, and she nodded, everyone now paying close attention to my metaphor.

"This state of affairs did not continue, however, as the boys were expelled from the school in Germany for violence against certain students who the entity believed were irredeemable in their actions." I continued. "The violence with the gangs escalated until the gangs, through espionage and blackmail amongst both their own members and the entities close associates, one of their members entered this time where the world froze over to target the entity."

"The entity killed the intended assassin with his own blade." I told everyone. "The assassin was a close friend of the entity, as well as the brother of the entity's current girlfriend. Unable to call an ambulance in this time where everyone was in their coffins, the entity carried his assassin's corpse to his family as he bled out. The boy is not yet sixteen. Are you all with me so far?"

Silence.

Then nods.

"Alright then." I said. "After being released from a juvenile correctional facility, where he served six months for manslaughter, this entity's life was filled with blood baths where people constantly sought his life. After one particular battle in February, when the entity spent much of a frozen hour dragging the coffins of his enemies from a river of blood, the entity decided to accept the invitation to attend a school in Japan in order to escape the violent life he was trapped in where he was the king and everyone sought his life. The boy is now seventeen."

Mitsuru and Fuuka both looked down, Chie, Yosuke and Yukiko dumbstruck in the shock. "Within a week of coming to Japan to escape a life of darkness and violence, the entity awakened to the power of Persona, and for the next year of his life would spend most of his nights fighting denizens of darkness, fighting for his life and for the life of others in bloodier battles than he has ever faced before. As he progressed into this dark path, as his powers of Persona increased, the cracks of his fragile psyche, buried under a decade of numb violence and successes, this boy began to break under the pressure."

"Slowly but surely, his sanity and self-control waned." I explained. "Were it not for the constant vigilance of his allies around him, he would have quickly collapsed into an engine of destruction. However, by keeping reality in check, by calling him out on his actions, and by simply caring for him, the entity held itself together until returning home for Christmas, where the pains and damage from the past decade returned in full force, climaxing into an utterly shattered psyche of a wrathful emperor, who tore down any attempt to dethrone him from his throne. For one month, the boy was an unrequited king, his power unmatched, his vengeance unfettered, until not even the goddess of death could kill him."

I looked into everyone's eye. "In a momentary lapse of madness, the entity decided that there was only one way to stop himself. Splitting his psyche, he took all that was good, all that was noble, all that he was proud to declare was him and used sealed himself to the door to the night, locking himself in a constant battle against the despair of humanity made manifest to hold back the night, to keep mankind alive for one more day, leaving his darkness, his pain, his fury on the earth, alone to carry out the actions that he could or would not do himself while he held onto what was left of his humanity. This entity is not yet eighteen years old."

"Imagine what you, with your relatively peaceful lives, had to go through when you faced yourselves in the hollow forest." I told the three members of the Inaba scoobies as my eyes turned yellow and a black mist began to gather around me. "Now imagine the entity I just described."

_**I am His Shadow.**_

_**I am that entities darkness. **_

_**I am what that boy could not accept about himself.**_

_**Imagine how messed up I am?**_

The mist dissipated and my eyes returned to a more... _human_ colour, and I returned to my noodles.

"And on top of that, I am psychically linked with every single Shadow on the planet, manifest or subconscious, just as my Other is linked with every single human soul. Hope that answered your question Chie." I told her, shovelling another mouthful in. "Hey, could someone grab me a glass of water? Thanks."

* * *

People decided to not ask personal questions about me after that, which kinda killed the mood.

So, I took a nap for a few hours.

It's... kinda interesting.

Having time to take a nap.

It's not like I can go anywhere.

Waking up, everyone was here.

Well, I say everyone.

I was there. Yosuke was nearby, thanks to magic soul chain.

Chie, Yukiko, Mitsuru, Naoki and Fuuka was here.

So was Shinji, Ken, Marina, Seta and Koromaru.

Aigis is here, Kenji, Rio, Kazushi and Elizabeth,

So's Yukari, and Natalie, and Teddie.

A nice round twenty.

And hey, everyone's read the memo.

That makes life easier.

I swung my legs around and moved to the table Yosuke was sat on, near Chie and Yukiko. Everyone was looking at me expectantly.

Hm...

"So..." Yukari started, trying to break the awkward silence. "Hey."

"Hey." I raised my hand back. "Need to have a word with you afterwards, but it can wait for now."

"Oh, okay..." Yukari replied half-heartedly. Awkward.

"Alright, let's get this over with." Shinji announced, decided to take the lead since I clearly wasn't. "We all fought that thing last night, and a lot of people died. No one knows we're involved, but it's clear that if we hadn't got involved, a lot more people would have died."

"While the initial form was admittedly less destructive than subsequent transformations, the fact that the enemy would have attacked civilians if allowed to enter normal time is clear." Mitsuru explained to everyone. "Despite the heavy civilian casualties, it was a successful operation."

"I'd disagree." Seta interrupted, glancing at the memo. "We've just been thrown into the middle of some freak's vendetta against this guy-" He pointed at me. "And nearly four hundred people died because of it. Game's still on so more people are gonna die with this carries on. That does not sound like a success to me."

I nodded. "This is my mess, and I wish you weren't involved." I told everyone. "If you weren't involved, then I wouldn't have my power jammed up and I could just go to the warp, track down this woman and make a public example of her to anyone else who dared oppose me before devouring her and taking her power. As it happens, I need your help to stop this from happening again."

"To do what?" Seta snapped at me. "Go arcana hopping, fighting whatever demons she decides to throw at humanity, kill it before it destroys the entire city, and hope the death count doesn't overtake the birth rate?"

Awkward silence.

Everyone's deliberately not getting involved in this one.

"You don't exactly realise how much crap we are in, do you?" I asked him.

He glared at me.

"The being that has kept the entire demonic race in fear against messing with humanity has just been disabled." I pointed out. "Hito-Shura, what is the human equivalent to how the demons view the Shadow of the Universe?"

Naoki thought about it.

"Put Goku into Neon Genesis Evangelion." He decided. "Imagine one man, super saiyan, capable of destroying the planet with a shrug, a mortal so powerful that he could take the strongest angel in one hand and crush its skull like butter. Imagine how everyone, human and angel, would feel about something that powerful being in a show where everyone is completely outclassed. There is no measuring stick to compare the sheer level of power."

He pointed to me. "Boom. That's how they see this guy. That's why everything's been so peaceful for the last four years. Most threatening thing that happened was one goddess who didn't quite get the memo and that was resolved with only a handful of fatalities on both sides, Shadows not included."

"We are sub-class citizens in the human-demonic plane, yes." I sighed, turning back to everyone. Kinda goes with the territory of having less than animal sentience most of the time. "Of course, once word gets out that I am reduced to the level of your average Persona user, humanity will have an armageddon to deal with. The only way for humanity to survive will be evacuation or allowing the situation to cross the Nyx threshold."

"Nyx threshold?" Ken asked, not liking where this was going.

"The point where letting Nyx loose to end all life on the planet wouldn't make the situation that much worse, because at least then Minato Arisoto would be free to lay the smackdown on everyone. Naoki, comparison to how the demons view Arisoto."

"Imagine if a man took a bunch of toddlers, taught them to throw snowballs, and those kids then overthrew the entire US military overnight." Naoki told everyone. "That's what Arisoto did to the Warp- the demonic world- while he was still _mortal_. Now he's got to the point where he can crush planets in his hand. How do you _think_ they feel about him?"

"Thank you." I nodded, turning to everyone. "In other words, I'm the errand boy of an omnipotent being, and I was the only thing keeping them back. Once they realise that there is no goalkeeper in the net, as it were, it's only a matter of time before someone takes a pot shot and ends the world."

...

Ah.

"So, the danger is not necessarily in the being claiming to be World." Natalie explained. "There are political enemies to consider as well."

"Right." I confirmed. "Current plan is to go along with this game, devouring demons along the way to build up my power while Minato separates me from his psyche for some reason completely unknown to me, something I'm _really_ trying not to think about, and we keep going like this until I'm capable of severing ties with Arisoto and going after World, ending this whole farce and reinstating myself as the line that must not be crossed before war breaks out. Until then, I'm going to need your help. And Kanji's." I added. "I'll need an Emperor to link myself to in a couple of days even if it's only for him to babysit me for twenty four hours."

And now to see everyone thinking about it.

I already know the majority will say yes.

S.E.E.S. is too battle soaked to consider otherwise. Battle is an obligation for them. They've fought for less clear objectives before, and in their minds, it's what their role to do is.

The scoobies, on the other hand, aren't as battle-hardened. They are, however, very concerned about letting innocents die by their inaction. Seta would be the main obstacle, primarily due to how much he hates my guts, but there's also that little voice in the back of his head, suggesting he should be on the demon's side anyway, and things would work out fine if they run their course.

But then he'll realise that's stupid and, as someone who reached World, just doesn't have the heart to let his responsibility slide like that.

Elizabeth clearly wants in, Naoki likes it when demons aren't eating people, which leaves Kenji, Rio and Kazushi.

Kenji's concerned about his pregnant wife, Rio has never dealt with this before, and Kazushi?

"I'm not exactly needed here, am I?" He asked everyone, drawing them out of their thoughts.

"They way you guys were fighting that thing... I'm nothing, aren't I?" He asked, looking around the room for confirmation. "I was pretty much dead weight when we were fighting that thing, at least after it transformed."

"Kaz-" Kenji started, before I cut him off.

"I would be lying if I said that you weren't the Yamcha of the group." I told him. "However, you and I are of similar power levels at the moment. Kenji, Rio, you two aren't that far ahead of us. However, weaker does not mean invalid. One entity can make a difference in skirmishes like last night, all of you proved that to everyone."

"Besides, when Persona is involved, you catch up pretty quick." Ken pointed out. "I've got two years on these guys." He said, gesturing to Chie, Yukiko and Yosuke, "And I'm not that far ahead in terms of power."

Kazushi didn't seem to convinced, even though he clearly wanted to help.

"I'm in." Rio said, much to the surprise of Kenji.

"We'll do it." Yukiko agreed, looking to Chie who nodded with her.

"Still here for ya." Naoki smirked, and others began voicing their agreement, some not so much.

"Alright." I announced, raising my hands. "If we're forming a team of Persona users, demons and shadows, I want to make it clear that I have no intention of leading this group. I have my reasons, but I intend to fight alongside humanity."

I should have received some complaints at that point. I really deserved that.

But they didn't come.

People are doing things that I'm not expecting them to do.

As someone intrinsically aware of what each individual on the planet is thinking, this is really worrying.

Wait.

When did I start referring to myself as Someone?

...

This is bad. Next thing I'll have a Shadow.

"So who to lead?" Yukari asked, pulling me from that dangerous train of thought as she looked around the room.

There seemed no obvious takers.

Actually, no.

It was the complete opposite case.

We had too many candidates for leadership.

Both Marina and Seta are full-scale Wild Cards, both capable leaders. However, Marina is somewhat less experienced in demonic conflict, while Seta has a nasty temper on him.

Aigis, on the other hand, is very level headed, very capable of leading a team, but the same qualifications fall on Mitsuru and Shinji.

However, no matter who it falls on, and no matter how well intentioned and willing to help everyone is, there will always be that divide between the S.E.E.S., the scoobies, and the newcomers.

No one will admit it now, but that rift will remain.

It may not even cause conflict, but it's a barrier nonetheless.

Not an agressive barrier.

It's a barrier of 'I don't know you as well as I know my friend.'

How to get rid of that...

"How about this?" I asked, letting a slightly blue aura spread across the room.

Once the room was enveloped, the aura vanished.

"I've just created a Sekai-Rei, a sealed-off plane for Shadow Games." I explained as a sphere covered in little poles materialised in the space between everyone. "The rules for this game are simple. Everything is indestructible, no one can be injured, and nothing outside this space can interfere with the outside world, and so on. We'll play thirty four rounds of a common party game, the winner at the end will lead the team. If you take a pole from the sphere, then you intend to stay in this group. If not, and you leave through that door over there," I pointed, and the door in question was the only object in the room that glowed ominously. "Then you return to your life. You keep your memories, your abilities, but you hold no obligation to assist in the current situation."

"A line in the sand, an election of leadership, a team building exercise and training in demonic arts all in one." Mitsuru noted. "I'm impressed. You thought this through."

I shrugged. "The game is simple. The only changes to the traditional version is that each forfeit _must_ be carried out." I warned everyone. "If you receive a forfeit and refuse to comply, your body will simply perform the action for you. As overseer, I reserve the right to veto forfeits that exceed to acceptable limit, but that shouldn't be a problem since everyone playing intends to make friends with people they'll still be friends with next week."

"Who decides the forfeit?" Shinji asked, concerned.

"Each other." I replied. "But, enough talk. Draw a stick if you intend to join this team."

* * *

I was impressed.

No one left.

In fact, it only took thirty seconds for twenty people to take their stick and commit themselves to fight a battle for the fate of the human race.

It took slightly longer for that to people to realise that their sticks were numbered.

One to nineteen.

"KINGS GAME!" I shouted, holding my stick in the air, a red band surrounding my stick. "The one who draws the king's sceptre is to be crowned king, and the kings orders must be carried out! I shouted, a golden crown appearing above my head. "And the King MUST issue a command for the game to progress!"

I rose to my feet, grinning. "Number nineteen is to wear its true form for the next ten rounds."

Now lets hope nineteen is someone interesting- OH HEY Teddie's glowing.

And two wings have sprouted from his back.

One black, leathery, and nasty looking.

One white, feathery, and quite comforting.

His hair is paler and he seems slightly leaner.

And his eyes are yellow.

"Well..." I said, lowering my arm. "That was unexpected."

Teddie looked at me, glaring as my crown vanished.

"This just got Bear-sonal." he growled as everyone's sticks floated back into the floating sphere for the next round.

* * *

**=}+{=**

* * *

So, yeah.

This game was going to take place this chapter, but come on people. Sitting around talking is long.

And before the suggestions flood in, I've already got the piece of paper detailing who's gonna be king, what orders they'll give, and who'll respond and how. But I do need your help on something.

Who's Minatos going to be chained to next? Fuuka or Yukiko?


	5. Game Of Kings

Everyone looked around at Teddie.

And to be honest, no one seemed that phased about it.

I love it when people get comfy in their seats aboard the crazy train.

I took another stick. 12.

"My turn then?" Shinji asked as a gold crown appeared above his head. "Alright, number Eighteen. What's the deal with Aki being back?"

Kenji shrugged. "No idea. I'm as surprised as you there."

"Can't answer a question you don't know the answer to." I pointed out as the sticks began to return to the sphere. "For the record, I know just as little as you do there."

"Tch." He grunted, looking into the sphere as it span, shuffling the sticks around rapidly before slowing to a stop before taking one.

I took mine. Three.

"Number twelve." Naoto stated, crown above her this time. "What is your relationship to Minato Arisoto?"

Another one that could easily result in providing no relevant answers.

Seriously. Anyone could have that stick. Odds are that she'll learn nothing she shouldn't already know from that.

"Saw him in a KFC talking to a kid that wasn't real yet actually was." Naoki replied. "Transferred to his school, had some fun, had a few escapades, eventually we led an army in a battle against the Tenshi, and I joined him during humanity's epic last stand against Nyx. Good times." He nodded, pushing his stick back into the floating orb.

Fair enough then. Next round it is.

And everyone's being pretty boring sullen about this.

We need to shake this up.

And I'm number seven. Dangit.

"All hail king Hanamura!" Yosuke declared, standing up with glee. "Number sixteen! Sing the Junes jungle for me! Passionately!"

Oh, this'll be fun, Mitsuru?

"Ahem." She coughed, before taking in a deep breath. "_Every day's Great at your Junes~!_"

Alright, that was pretty hilarious. Sniggers all around, at least from the S.E.E.S. family.

Draw new stick, and I'm number four.

"Number nineteen!" King Kenji declared. "Take the person on your left and give them a piggy back around the room!"

"EH!" Fuuka shouted as Shinji grabbed her. "W-WAIT! NO SENPAAAIIII!"

Alright that just had everyone in hysterics. "GIDDY UP!" Marina shouted gleefully. "RIDE LIKE THE WIND!"

Naturally, this only added to Fuuka's embarrassment, but Shinji just rolled with it, grunting a mirthful "Tch." While he was at it.

Now we're cooking with gas. Finally building some team camaraderie here.

Alright, sixteen now.

"Number Seventeen." Seta announced, a crown appearing above his head. "The king demands to know your true motives for taking part in this mad escapade we're all involved in."

And that just killed it. Seta's a hole.

"After finding out who I truly am, I was mildly disappointed at the answers I found for myself." Elizabeth explained with a smile. "So, I decided to continue my work as a ghost amongst the real world, assisting Minatos in his efforts to help humanity like a good wife."

...

"Simile, not statement." I clarified, glancing at Elizabeth with a smirk. "No offence, but it just wouldn't work out between us."

Elizabeth merely smiled. "Oh my, perhaps I crossed another of these social boundaries?" She asked, returning her stick. "I must be more careful in future."

Yeah, she knows exactly what she's doing.

Alright, back to the crazy fun. Number eight.

"Number thirteen." Shinji announced, light dancing around his head. "Tell us your deepest darkest secret."

Oh no.

"VETO!" I shouted as Yukari began to open her mouth. "As the embodiment of ALL of humanities deepest darkest secrets I hereby declare that to be a bad and incredibly suicidal idea that could result in me involuntarily transforming into something dangerous and killing everyone in the room. Please change that order."

"Alright, fine." Shinji grunted, rubbing his head. "Forgot this game's magic rules... Tell us something you're ashamed about that you haven't told us then, sorry Yukari." He smiled apologetically.

"No, it's fine." Yukari replied, running her fingers through her hair. "Better than the alternative. Well, lemme think... Growing up, always hated my mom for the way she used people to make herself feel better about herself, especially after dad died. She pretty much neglected me and went about hopping from one guy to the next. I promised myself that I'd never become like that, but at some point along the road, I realised that between me and Minato, the way I treat Junpei like dirt, how I kept Aigis on a short leash and under my control, even how I tried to take you, Fuuka, under my wing like some sorta sidekick." She smiled sadly. "I'd pretty much been doing the exact same thing as her, freaking out whenever something didn't go the way I wanted it to. Sorry everyone." she said.

"We were kinda hoping for something we didn't already know." Shinji grunted as Aigis slung an arm around Yukari, Fuuka moving over to her. "Don't worry about it."

Yukari smiled, head down as Fuuka comforted her

And the sticks are back in the ball, spinning like a drunken hedgehog DJ.

"And the King is I." Seta announced, drawing his glasses from his pocket and donning them dramatically. "What... is your true motive for being here... NUMBER FIFTEEN!"

Same thing over and over again? He's clearly potlucking hoping to get to me.

Or just getting a feel for the S.E.E.S. members.

Or he's saving up his pocket money to buy some original ideas.

Or something like that.

What number am I again?

Four.

"I'm here because it's the right thing to do." Fuuka stated, looking into Seta's eyes clearly before turning back to Yukari.

I smirked, then turned towards the dumbfounded fool.

"You know Seta, every once in a while, once in a blue moon, you discover someone that completely destroys your previous belief that everyone is a self-serving scumbag pretending to be a nice person." I told him. "Occasionally, pretty rarely in fact, you meet someone that actually is a good person all the way down to the core. Be grateful that you have the pleasure of being associated with her."

Seta glared at me. "Yes." He replied carefully, squeezing disgust into every word he pointed at me. "I had figured that all on my own, thanks. We had a nice mood going as I basked in my admiration. Thanks for ruining that for everyone. Keep your mouth shut from now on."

I grinned.

"Try saying that when you've still got the crown next time." I laughed, drawing my next stick.

Thirteen.

"NUMBER ONE!" Kazushi shouted, rising to his feet. "Tell us the story of how you obtained and developed your Persona!"

"Eh?" Yosuke asked, then coughed. "Erm, got my Persona because I had a crush on this girl." He explained. "She died and it involved the world inside the TV for some reason. SO, me and Seta went in and got attacked by Shadows. There was still some remnants of this girl's psyche hanging around the place and she went on about how much of a loser she thought I was. Then my Shadow came along, pointing out to everyone that I didn't really care about that at all and was just looking for a good time. Cue my rejection of the blatantly obvious and BAM! A giant frog monster being ridden by my Shadow appeared!" He shouted this time, before calming himself down. "Seta kills it, gave me one of his trademark lame speeches, like he always does, and I accept my Shadow, which becomes my Persona, Jiraiya."

Seta pouted, trying his best to look hurt, succeeding for the most part. "You actually think my speeches are lame?"

"You know we do." Yosuke shrugged, turning back to Kazushi. "And by developed, do you mean evolved it or whatever?" He asked, soliciting a shrug. "Alright. This guy over here beat the emo out of me, and I smacked him around in return. Then I felt pretty good about myself and boom, Jiraiya went super and became Susano-o."

That makes perfect sense. Put stick back. Ball spins around, grab new stick.

Fourteen. Dang, am I ever going to be king again?

Yosuke glanced nervously at Chie as light formed around his head.

Aha. It's not like when he played this game before when everyone was free game.

He actually has a girlfriend now so has to watch his moves.

This'll be fun.

He was clearly agitated about this.

Almost aggravated, even.

"Rrrgh, stupid Dragon BALL!" He shouted, waving his king stick in the air. "NUMBER NINETEEN!" He shouted. "DO THE FUSION DANCE WITH ME!"

"YES!" Yukiko shouted, walking over to near Yosuke and getting into the pose.

Wait, would she even know what the fusion dance is?

...

"Fuu..."

She's Chie's best friend.

"Shuuuun..."

Of course she's seen Dragon Ball Z.

Wait.

"HA!" They both shouted, fingers touching as they were both engulfed in white light.

She actually believes this will work because of the whole sekai-rei thing doesn't she.

Flip.

The light dissipated, and there stood... what.

Long, straight brown hair, with spiky black highlights.

Open black jacket, big yellow poofy collar.

White parachute pants.

Female.

"Well... this is weird." Yosiko said, checking herself out. "So, we could do this all along?"

No. NO. "NO!" I finally verbalised. "WE are NOT doing this! The only reason THIS happened is because We're in a Sekai-Rei, fuelled by the beliefs of those involved, and Yukiko actually believed that in a place like this, this would actually happen! You are going to SPLIT UP NOW Before one of you starts eating the other's psyche in there! UNDERSTAND!?"

"Aww, come on!" Yosiko laughed. "We just got here, can't we have a little more fun?"

I snarled. "SOUJI! IF YOU HAVE ANY DESIRE TO SEE EITHER YOSUKE OR YUKIKO AS THEY WERE BEFORE THIS BLOODY FIASCO HAPPENED, YOU ARE GOING TO USE YOU NULL-DEMONIC HAND ON THIS ABOMINATION RIGHT NOW!"

"I got it." He sighed, standing to his feet.

"You'll have to catch me first!" Yosiko shouted, moving to run as I yanked my arm back, bringing them to the floor as they screamed.

"NOW!" I shouted, wrapping the invisible chain around them to prevent any further escape attempts. "SPLIT THEM!"

Seta pushed past me and slammed his arm into Yosiko's face, which quickly turned back to Yosuke.

And I was kneeling on a chained up Yukiko.

Hm, that was an unexpected development.

Quick mental scan of the both shows a very small level of cross contamination.

But it looks like Yukiko's going to suffer a strange craving for American music for a while.

"Alright, new rule to the game." I snarled, getting to my feet as Yukiko nursed the invisible collar around her neck. "No more fusing. It's bad enough when an expert does it, without humans with their malleable psyche's trying it."

Yukiko and Yosuke are still breathing heavily.

"Yeah, that was what, fifteen seconds?" I asked them. "How many deep dark secrets were shared in that time I wonder?"

Both of them froze, refusing to accept that the other knew as much about them as they knew about the other, thanks to this idiotic episode.

"Yeah, it doesn't get much more intimate than combining psyche's, does it children?" I snarled, getting right into their faces. "Never. Ever. Do that again."

Seta put a hand on my shoulder. "They get the point." He stated angrily. "Let 'em go."

I threw my arms into the air. "Fine, whatever. Yukiko, where were you sat? I'm on that table now."

* * *

And after everyone settled down, it was time for another round of the kings game.

Number sixteen for me.

"Alright, number six, I want you to complain about the worst teacher you had in high school." Kenji announced and Yukiko looked down to her feet

"I'd rather not speak ill of the dead." She stated defiantly, before raising her head up sharply, Sekai-Rei taking over. "Morooka was a creep!" She shouted. "He was always shouting at us like we'd done something wrong, and he kept giving us pervy looks whenever he was talking about the way we dressed! I seriously think he had a thing for teenage girls, it wouldn't surprise me if he did something to someone when he was drunk off his head that time we were camping and HMPH!" She clamped her hand firmly around her mouth to prevent any more verbal diarrhea.

To be fair, he was pretty creepy. NEXT ROUND!

Hm, number eleven.

"Oh!" Elizabeth exclaimed, crown forming above her. "Hmm... what should my orders is king be..?" She asked herself. "I suppose that a commonly given command one would give in this situation would be for someone to sit on my lap. Number fourteen!" She announced, and Yosuke began panicking.

"Oh no." He said as his body began walking over to her. "Oh no oh no oh no Not my fault! Not my fault! Not my fault!" He whimpered, sitting down upon the attendant's lap.

"Oh my..." Elizabeth smiled, blushing slightly, gloved hand to her face in mock embarrassment.

Okay, this is hilarious. New round, and I'm number three.

"SIX!" Yosuke shouted. "GET ME AWAY FROM THE SCARY LADY!"

Chie reached over, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and pulling him over to her. Violently.

Elizabeth smiled politely in response to her death glare, returning her stick and drawing another.

I followed her lead. Nineteen.

"Number fifteen." Mitsuru asked, crown floating above her head. "How did you come to be involved in this situation?"

"Oh, that would be me." Elizabeth announced. "After taking my leave from my service in the Velvet Room, I travelled the world to discover my true self, working alongside Minatos in his endeavour to social link the entire human race, eliminating Erebus and facilitating the return of Master Arisoto. However, with the introduction of Veritas De Sköll, I decided to gather those nearby allies and bring them to the nearby battle. As such, I came to find myself in the same battle as those in this room and was invited here for a social gathering of moderate importance."

Everyone seemed to accept that explanation. Seems to make perfect sense.

Chie's still upset though. And now she's the king.

"Number eleven." She announced. "Dance for our amusement. Sensually."

I looked at my new stick. Eighteen. Phew.

Then the music started. Slow bass guitars and saxophones.

And Naoto is on her feet, looking very uncomfortable as she moves her body.

"Not cool." Seta snapped as I glared at Chie, who seemed to down the humble pie.

I would do something about this, but this is within the rules.

Arbiter overrules older brother's Shadow.

Unfortunately.

* * *

After that fiasco was over, the crown fell onto Koromaru's head. "ARF!" He barked authority, raising one paw as he sat upright.

"Number one is to rub his belly." I translated, checking my stick. Eight.

Aigis stepped forward as Koromaru rolled onto his back, submitting to Aigis as she rubbed his fleshy underside, Koromaru growling appreciatively.

Fair enough, whatever floats your boat.

Next stick, and I'm number seventeen.

"Alright, tell me what you would do in your worst case scenario." Kenjamin announced, crown over his head. "Number seventeen!"

Oooh, that's me. "Pause." I announced before anyone could react. "I assume these are worst-case scenarios that don't cross over into the Nyx threshold?" I asked the king. "Because everyone's plan in that situation is run around, stay alive, and wait for Arisoto to fix it."

"Yes!" Ken declared. "Worst case scenarios are for you personally. No world-ending scenarios, or anything involving government interference."

"Okay." I nodded. "Unpause. I would use my contacts with the mermaids to infiltrate the Lost Boys, then work my way up the ranks in order to rally them to arms and declare a Bangarang."

That just confused everybody. "Skrillex much?" Yosuke asked.

"What's Homestuck got to do with it?" I asked him. "The Lost Boys are serious business I would rather not get involved in."

"And what do the mermaids have to do with it?" Yukari asked, leering.

I put my hands up defensively. "I'll answer those questions when asked to by the king, whose crown appears to be up for grabs. Next round!"

Everyone glared silently at me before deciding to just grab another stick.

Nine.

"Oh my, I am the king again!" Elizabeth declared, causing Yosuke to panic reflexively. "I think... I shall have... Number two escort me on a piggy back ride around the room."

Yosuke let out a sigh of relief as Naoki stood to his feet. "Watch the ceiling." Shinji warned as Elizabeth climbed onto Naoki's shoulders.

"Oh, I see..." Elizabeth commented as Naoki stood up and began walking. "The sensation of having one's head between your thighs... The gyration caused by the walking motion of the one carrying you... the vantage point of the increased vertical height... I can clearly understand the appeal of such an activity amongst humans..."

I facepalmed.

You would think you would get used to her antics by now.

But, you... you just don't...

I put my stick back, waiting for the next round to come.

* * *

"Oh my, I appear to be the king once again." Elizabeth declared, striking fear into everyone else in the room. "I will have... number fourteen-"

"AAAH!" Yosuke yelped, leaping to hide behind Chie. Nice pokerface.

"Sit with his head on my lap until directed otherwise by one holding the rank of king." She sneered menacingly.

Yosuke was in tears as his body resisted his efforts and sat next to Elizabeth, tilting himself to place his head in her lap as unoffensively as he could.

"There there..." Elizabeth said motheringly, brushing his hair with her gloved fingers.

Yosuke whimpered.

And a quick shuffle of the sticks showed Chie's determination to protect her territory, but alas, she was not the king as she had hoped.

I was.

I could show kindness.

But where is the fun in that.

"Number eleven is to inflict physical pain upon Seta." I declared.

"WHAT?!" Seta shouted as a gunshot rang out.

Aigis stood to her feet, her fingers a smoking gun.

"I hate you." Seta grunted, getting to his feet, wiping blood from his forehead. "Have I told you that lately?"

I grinned, putting my stick back into the spinny floaty ball. "That's twenty rounds, for those who aren't counting." I announced. "Fourteen left."

This time, Chie was the king.

She seemed to consider saving Yosuke from his hell.

She really did consider it.

"Number five." She announced. "I require a shoulder massage."

"EUYES!" Teddie declared, his pretty boy self jumping at the chance. "OH CHIE-SHAN! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY THIS MAKES ME! OH, MY JOY IS UNBEAR-ABLE-!"

He was stopped by Yosuke's foot to his face.

His face was still planted firmly in Elizabeth's grip.

But that foot was planted firmly into Teddie's face.

I think Yosuke may have picked up some of my agility when we fused.

"Ah, I mean..." Teddie announced carefully, wiping the blood from his nose with a handkerchief as he stepped back from Yosuke's foot. "I will professionally perform this massage in the least sexually motivated manner possible while tenderising your shoulder muscles with my unwandering hands."

Yosuke didn't say anything, merely grunting as he fell back into his seat.

That was a pretty impressive move there.

* * *

After a very uneventful application of hands on Chie's shoulders resulting in a decrease of stress all around, Yosuke was declared king.

"As king, I declare myself free from this prison and number thirteen is to take my place in all further attempts on my chastity this woman makes!" He shouted, rising to his feet and walking to Chie.

"Understood." Aigis nodded as Elizabeth chuckled.

"I apologise if I have offended anybody in my participation of the game." She smiled politely as she returned her stick, knowing full well that she was getting their goat.

Or did she? I can never tell with this woman.

I drew my next stick. Eleven.

"Huh?" Yosuke asked as the crown appeared above his head once more. "Double king? Sweet?"

Now what?

"Erm..." He muttered. "Ergh... Dangit, I keep drawing blanks!" He shouted. "Fourteen! Do a backflip!"

"Huh?" Naoto-Natile-Know what? Naoto for now. Naoto stood up and moved towards the centre of the room. "Alright, I'm not sure how this will go, but..."

Yosuke paled as Seta glared.

Naoto took a deep breath, then jumped.

She rolled back in the air, tucking her feet into her chest as she span, then stretched them out again as she landed, almost stumbling over, but managing to maintain her balance on remaining upright.

"Phew." She smiled, picking up her hat as everyone cheered. "That went well."

She tapped her stick into the ball that floated back into place, everyone's sticks flying back towards it.

"Ten rounds left." She said, drawing a new stick when it was offered.

"Okay, am I ever going to actually do anything in this game?" Marina asked, drawing her own stick, before face palming. "NOPE! BORING!"

"Don't tempt fate." Shinji pointed out as a crown materialised above his head. "Number nineteen, give us your honest opinion to this whole mess we're in with the Arcana."

"Honestly?" Mitsuru asked. "I would say that we were in a far better situation than when we faced the Shadows back in 2009. This time we have more allies, we have a far greater strength. We know our enemy." She smiled. "Above it all, we've matured. Looking back it's hard to believe we were able to accomplish such a task, with the fate of the world on our shoulders."

She looked directly at Shinji. "I feel good about the current state of affairs." She told him. "With due caution and reservation, I believe that we can emerge victorious from this ordeal."

Nice motivational speech.

I like it.

Next round.

* * *

This time, Kanjamin was the king. "Number seventeen." He declared. "Same rules as before. Tell me your plans for your worst case scenario."

"Well that's vague." Seta answered. "But in my worst case scenario my mind would already be gone so I couldn't predict how I'd deal with it. Killing and eating a horrifying number of people until one of you puts me down, most likely."

...

...

...

"Well someone's a pessimist." Ken shrugged, putting his stick back and setting the ball rolling again.

Literally.

I closed my eyes and took one at random.

Usually works when I'm bored.

And booyah. I'm the king.

Let's get some hilarity on.

"Number three." I grinned, eyes still closed. "Get on your social network and change your relationship status to 'Engaged'."

...

Mitsuru, Marina, Elizabeth, Yosuke and Seta all have their phones out.

And everyone else is getting on theirs.

Ooh, this'll be interesting.

Guitars started playing from the kitchen.

That got people's attention.

"It's mine." I said, standing up. "Come on Yukiko."

"Huh?" She asked, clearly confused.

"I've got a phone call." I explained, then turned to Shinji. "Hey, where's your fruit bowl?"

* * *

A few seconds later, I unpeeled the avocado and read the message that had engraved itself on the fleshy skin inside.

[ Mitsuru Kirijo has updated her relationship status to 'Engaged' with you. ]

[ Is this correct ]

[ Accept ] [ Decline ] [ Discard ]

...

Oh well played Miss Kirijo, well played.

I have no idea where she got my facebook account details from, but here they are.

Not even Minato's account. This is my personal one for keeping tabs on fools.

And she actually managed to track it down...

"So, your phone is... an avocado..?" Yukiko asked me tenaciously. "How does that-"

"I have no idea how it works, but when someone calls my number, a nearby piece of fruit will try and attract my attention." I explained, considering the creamy flesh of the message. "Although I did have to answer a hot dog that one time."

Well, regardless, of Yukiko's confusion, I need to get plotting.

Now, what should my next move be..?

Hm...

Heh.

I bit into the fruit.

* * *

"Wh-WHAT?!" Yukari shouted as I strolled back into the room with Yukiko, still eating my avacado. 'ARE YOU SERIOUS!?"

"Hey, if facebook says it's official, then it's official." I shrugged, returning to my seat as this mind game continued.

Now who will back out of this farce first?

Mitsuru sat down next to me, opposite Yukiko.

Then slunk her arm around mine.

...

Okay, I really, really wonder how long this will continue for.

My stick floated into the sphere, and the spinning for the next round began.

Yukari's still fuming.

Aigis doesn't seem that happy either.

Shinji just seems... disappointed.

Everyone does realise that this is a joke facebook engagement, right?

'Number Eighteen." Kenjamin declared, returning to kingship. "Same rules as before, same question. What would you do in your own personal worst case scenario?"

"Well, in a circumstance like that I would have to take up a false identity." Elizabeth replied, holding her chin thoughtfully. "I would go by the name of Gina, and I would get a job in a small diner in North America, somewhere on the east coast, perhaps falling into a passionate romance with a dock worker by the name of Tommy."

Whut.

"We would have to hold on to what we had, because at that point, it wouldn't make a difference if we made it or not." She continued, before smiling with a faint blush. "But, we would have each other, and that would be enough. Oh, Sorry!" she gasped, waving her hand at her face. "I feel that I may have gotten carried away there."

"No, no that was... sufficient..." Ken answered, sufficiently weirded out. "Next round, anyone?"

Everyone nodded, getting the ball spinning around.

And this time, Koromaru's the king. He barked, and Kazushi promised to provide bacon later, since he was number nineteen.

Quick spin later, and Fuuka's drawn the king's stick. This'll be interesting.

What would a genuinely good person force someone to do?

She thought about it.

"Number eleven." Fuuka decided. "What is something kind that someone has done for you lately?"

Rio smiled. "Let me off with something easy? I'm kidding." She laughed, before thinking seriously. "Breakfast waiting on the table after a late shift was nice." She said, smiling at Kenji as she rubbed his leg.

Ah, good to see that he didn't mess that one up. Good lad.

Some nice married couple romance squees later, and Rio was the king.

She leaned back, then announced that "Number eighteen is to give me a back rub."

"Wh- YOU CHEATED!" Kenji shouted, holding his stick close to his chest.

"The rules state nothing about spying to identify other people's numbers." Naoto pointed out, her face sharing a small hint of malice with mine.

"The detective has spoken." I declared. "Proceed with the rubbing of backs."

Kenji stabbed his stick into the sphere, getting the ball rolling again as he grumbled.

Time to take mine again. Twelve. Sigh.

"YES!" Marina shouted, holding up the king's stick. "About time."

"Oh boy..." Ken whistled. "This'll be good."

"The King decrees!" Marina shouted. "That we shall all be entertained by a performance of 'Man, I feel like a woman', that shall be provided by..." Marina grinned as she paused for suspense. "NUMBER ELEVEN!"

Naoto's hat rose above her head as guitar music blasted out of the speakers.

"Let's go girls." Aigis winked playfully, tugging Naoto's hat onto her own head as she strutted out to the stage.

* * *

After that showstopping performance, Aigis collapsed into her chair, breathing heavily and looking for her coat.

The ball hovered over her, one stick remaining.

"Right, of course..." She muttered, holding a hand out to pull out the last stick-

It had a red mark on the end.

Aigis was the king.

"Number sixteen needs to get me a drink." Aigis gasped, head leaning back into her chair. "And a towel."

* * *

"Number seven." King Naoto decided once Aigis had recomposed herself. "Tell us your true motive for participating in this campaign."

I looked at her. "Serious?" I asked her as Kenjamin stood up. "You're taking the Seta approach now?"

She shrugged, turning around to Ken as he shrugged.

"Got nothing better to do." He replied. "More productive than beating up school bullies."

He sat back down, and the sphere flashed red.

**FINAL ROUND**

Ohoho, that time already?

Everyone seems more thoughtful about the sticks they were choosing this time. I picked one at random, but got a six.

"Number five." Yukari declared, a crown glowing above her head. "You need to figure out what's going on with the engagement that happened tonight, and tell me what the hell is going on."

"INVESTIGATION TEAM GO ah dammit..." Yosuke muttered, and I just had to laugh and applaud how hilarious this was going to be.

**GAME OVER**

**YOSUKE HANAMURA WINS**

"Huh?" The man in question asked, standing to his feet.

**YOSUKE IS THE KING**

"So, I give another order?" Yosuke asked as I sniggered.

"It means you're team leader." I told him. "You were the most involved out of any of us, so you're the king."

"Wait, serous?" Someone else shouted, and I grinned at our noble leader.

"Undisputed leader of the group until proven otherwise." I told him with glee. "Yosuke Hanamura, you're in charge."

**BONUS ROUND**

And that ruined my mood.

This game doesn't have bonus rounds.

I designed this game and I didn't give it any bonus rounds.

Then again, I never told it not to.

**For the one who served loyally but never gave a command**

The crown fell on Teddie's head.

"Huh?" Teddie asked, before grinning. "OH FANGTASTIC!" He shouted, jumping into the air and clicking his shoes. "NUMBER NINETEEN HAS TO GO ON A LOVEY-DOVEY DATE WITH ME WITH PLENTY OF SMOOCHES AFTERWARDS!"

Everyone must have paled and double checked their stick except for the actual number nineteen.

"My, how forward." Elizabeth smiled. "Very well, shall we depart?"

"YAHOOO!" Teddie shouted, a blue flash engulfing the room and ending my sekai rei. "Good bye everyone, and see you all later in the evening!"

Yosuke gaped, then chuckled. "Well, whatever." He commented nonchalantly as Teddie and Elizabeth began to depart. "Anyone who loves Bon Jovi is alright in my book."

"Hm?" Elizabeth asked, pausing as she passed Yosuke. "Pardon me, but what is a banjo fee?"

Oh the look on Yosuke's face was priceless. "Uhh... never mind," He replied, curling up into the safety of Chie.

Smirking, I looked out the window.

It's probably three in the afternoon right now.

And I felt a flash of pain that I should have noticed hours ago.

That's right.

Sleep and the sekai-rei.

"Yukiko." I said calmly and carefully. "We are leaving. Now."

"Huh?" She asked, turning towards me.

"There is a young girl less than a mile from here." I explained, rising to my feet. "A little older than you. Her father and boyfriend just died in the aftermath and she is about to hang herself. We're going to intervene."

"Wh-what?" She replied, dumbfounded and I twisted towards her.

"SHE'S TYING THE NOOSE TO HER CEILING SO LET'S MOVE!"

* * *

**=}+{=**

* * *

There you go, glad you enjoyed.

For the record, Minatos' interpretation of 'young girl' is different to everyone else's in that room.

I was considering extending Aigis' musical number into the full scene, but couldn't decide whether or not I could be bothered writing it. Does anyone want me to type out Aigis's musical performance and edit it into the chap or is no one bothered?

Well, lemme know what you think of the chapter. Action heroing next time, need sleep.

Oh, and before you ask about the fruit? Go read Fairly English Story chapter 105.


	6. A Mild Case Of Blood and Tears

Hey, me again. Update up.

* * *

**=}+{=**

* * *

_What had I ever earned?_

_The reward for toil had always been more toil._

_When I dug the best ditches, he didn't even give me a bigger shovel._

_And I never, ever asked for anything in return._

_Which meant I never got anything in return._

* * *

**=}+{=**

* * *

We ran as fast as Yukiko could manage.

There was a subdued atmosphere in the streets of Iwatodai, now the pandaemonium calmed down.

Of course, this was the time where the pain takes hold before the reality sinks in.

"Fuuka." I said aloud as Yukiko caught her breath. "Scan the building at the co-ordinates I'm sending you. I need an entry way into apartment 304. Preferably via window."

_~ On it. ~_ Fuuka replied in my ear as Yukiko stood up straight, gulping in more air.

I checked on the girl.

She's sizing it up.

_~ Go down this alley way and pull the ladder down from the fire escape. ~_ Fuuka explained, showing me the location she was talking about. _~ Run three flights up and open the second window. Hurry! ~_

"LET'S GO!" I shouted, Yukiko sprinting alongside me. We had to run in synch, otherwise I'd end up choking her, and I'm not risking another fusion today just for convenience's sake.

Right, turn here, Yukiko following, jump onto this bin and pull-

Land on my backside, push Yukiko up the ladder. "Keep moving." I told her, rubbing my back before grabbing onto the ladder myself.

Once she got to the top and I was still climbing, she nursed her neck, keeping low until I caught up.

Right, her neck is chained my wrist.

Necks have a quality of remaining at the verticalmost end of the human body.

Wrists have a choice of being up or down.

I should've gone first.

"Up we go." Yukiko grunted, running up the stairs, me close behind.

One flight.

And her head's in the noose.

Two flights.

Sniffling...

Three flights NO DON'T KICK THE CHAIR OVER!

I slammed into the glass as the girl fell, then bounced back into the railing.

Dangit, I HATE DOUBLE GLAZING!

"AMETERASU!" Yukiko shouted, smashing a card to summon her persona, who slashed through the glass and bursted forward to cut the rope of the girl before she choked to death.

I vaulted in, Yukiko tumbling after me, and grabbed the girl.

Barely conscious, severe bruising around her neck.

Neck didn't break. That's a small mercy.

"Thank you." I told Yukiko as she brushed the broken glass from her hand. "I'm sorry for pushing you, but I really appreciate it."

"It's... it's okay..." She replied, breathing heavily. "Is she gonna be okay?"

There was a banging at the door.

"Ayako-chan?" One of her roomates shouted. "Ayako-chan, is everything okay?"

I stood up.

We need to leave.

But this girl-Ayako, she needs help.

"What do we do?" Yukiko whispered into my ear.

I looked around.

Yukiko's prints were on the carpet, and on the glass.

"Do you have a criminal record?" I asked her, to which she took offense.

"N-NO!" She shouted. "Why would you even-"

"Ayako-chan, is there someone in there with you?" Roommate asked. "I'm coming in, hold on."

"Because they're gonna dust for prints and I hope that they don't link you to the crime." I replied, transforming into a ginger bearded man. "Now to give you an alibi." I added, putting a had to her face.

"EH?!" She shouted, her hair turning blonde and wavy, dropping a bust size and gaining an inch in leg height.

And the friend came through the door.

"Wh-what on-"

"MOVE!" I shouted, pushing Yukiko out the window and down the fire escape.

"HEY- WAIT!" Ayako's roommate shouted, rushing to the window as we escaped. "STOP! POLICE!"

But we walked onto the street as two dark-haired Japanese students.

* * *

Yukiko played with her hair on the way back to Shinji's. "So... how did you do that..?" she asked me.

"I ate Zeus a while ago." I told her. "Power to change both my appearance and that of others is one that stuck as my own. Plus a few lightning skills."

Caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I said that.

I look old.

Not massively, but older than I should be for my age.

I think I might be getting a few wrinkles.

And I can see the Emperor motif behind me.

That's... unusual.

I'm not supposed to have an arcana am I?

I looked within myself.

Four Personae.

That's not good.

I haven't been able to single out Personae like that for years.

On top of that, I don't recognise any of these as ones Minato used.

Jacob, 0, Fool arcana. Null fire, null ice, null light. Weak to electricity and wind.

Zeus, 4, Rebel arcana. Repel electricity, null wind.

Izanami, 3, Refuge arcana. Drain electricity, null light, null dark.

Chernobog, 11, Hunger arcana. Null physical, dark, and ice, weak to fire and wind.

Jacob's mine.

I devoured Zeus and Izanami, both using the skill Black God, which I used from Minato's personae, but now it's held by Chernobog.

And Izanami has a lot of scanning techniques, which let me see things from other viewpoints, and connect with other people's Shadows.

I have no idea where Chernobog came from. Following the trend, I should have Leliel.

I know for a fact Minato never had Chernobog.

...

Since when did I start thinking of myself as separate from Minato?

I am him and he is me, right?

So why does that feel so wrong now?

"Is... something wrong?" Yukiko asked, noticing I wasn't listening to her.

"N-no." I lied, raising my hand to wipe my forehead. "It's fi-"

There is blood on my hand.

There is blood on my hand.

There is bright red blood on my hand.

I licked it.

It stung my hand.

It tasted metallic.

I felt something flap against my tongue.

I knelt down and wiped my hand against the snow, leaving a bloody smear against the white.

Yukiko said something, but I wasn't listening.

There was a cut on my hand.

More blood oozed out of it.

"It's probably from the glass." Yukiko said, taking my hand and shoving a diarahan down it.

It tingled as the wound closed up.

"Better?" She asked me, trying to cheer me up for whatever mysterious reason I seemed down.

"Yukiko?" I asked her, looking into her eyes. "You've been fighting Shadows long enough to know that their blood is black. You've probably been in enough fights to know that their blood tastes like sludge."

Small clouds came out of my mouth when I talked.

There was a pain in my chest.

My toes are numb.

"You're freezing." Yukiko told me, purposefully ignoring the question I wasn't asking. "Let's get you inside."

* * *

I didn't talk to anyone for a while.

Someone forced a hot drink into my hand.

I burned my mouth on it.

I switched persona to Jacob.

It was easier to drink it then.

The cold wasn't as intense either.

* * *

Snapped out of it after an hour or so.

I checked the clock.

Four thirty.

It has not been a fun day.

There are still a lot of people in this city that need help.

I can't do it.

Can't help them all.

I scanned through them again.

No one else is suicidal yet.

Quick scan again,

Two or three may contemplate it in the next few hours or so.

I marked those as alert just in case.

Everyone else can fend for themselves at the moment.

"You okay?" Yukari asked, sat opposite me.

I shrugged. "It's been a long day." I told her. "Wanna have that talk?"

She nodded, and we both looked at Yukiko.

"Um... don't mind me, it's okay." She assured us awkwardly. "Uh... do... you want me to go..? Uh..."

* * *

The door clicked shut behind me, and Yukari sat on the bathtub.

I picked a spot on the porcelain throne, resting my arm on the loo roll. Yukiko's sat in the changing room outside the Japanese bathrooms they always have.

"So," Yukari said, looking right at me. "Whatcha wanna talk about?"

"I wanted to give you a proper explanation." I told her.

"Explain what?" She asked. "You're gonna defend him? You're gonna try and make it right between me and him now?"

"No." I told her. "Present evidence notwithstanding, I'm his Shadow. I was born of his weaknesses and self-hate that he wasn't willing to accept. As far as I am concerned, he's a self-serving scumbag that didn't care what anyone else felt as long as he was getting what he wanted, but what I can tell you is that he cared about you. I might even go as far as to say that he loved you, if he was capable of actually having that emotion."

Yep, reopening old wounds is the first part of treating them properly. "So you're trying to make things right then?" She replied bluntly.

"Sounds it, but that's not what I'm trying to achieve." I replied, meeting her glare. "Minato Arisoto left this mortal plane on January thirty-first. Everything after that point was me. I was the one that broke up with you, not him, and the events I told you about then happened."

Yep, reopening old wounds hurts. "But Minato Arisoto had no intention of telling you about them because he wasn't even aware of them himself."

That just got blankness from her.

"Growing up, Minato Arisoto experienced blackouts." I told her. "Sometimes he'd wake up and he'd be holding a gun to his neck. Sometimes he would be soaked in someone else's blood. In time, he came to control them, but he referred to the entity that would take over as The Oncoming." I explained. "It wasn't until he came back to Japan that they began happening again, starting around the time of the Lovers battle. _After_ he was charmed, when he summoned Orpheus Hollow."

"And that Oncoming was you." She replied, putting two and two together.

"I think so, but I'm not certain." I answered. "But I think so, because I remember what happened during those events. However, after Orpheus Hollow, there would be events that I was blacked out from, that he remembered but I could not. These were events he did not want me present for."

That raised her eyebrow.

"So, Shadow." She replied. "Do you remember that time he hid in a tree, waited for me to get out of school before swinging out and kissing me upside down?"

I blinked.

Then I laughed.

"That would be something he would do..." I said, smiling. "Yeah, that's the kind of events that he was stopping me from knowing about. I honestly had no idea what you saw in him before I figured it out. But long story short, he was hiding things from me, just as I'd been hiding things from him earlier in his life. It took a while before I was doing it to him."

"So what, it's your fault he cheated on me?" Yukari asked, seeing where this was going.

"Mostly on one end, not quite on another." I replied. "But that's one point I wanted to clear. Another was what having over two hundred fragments in your psyche kept separate all at once, yet all of them self aware and listening to their voices all the time?"

That was another whammy for her.

"You probably noticed, but from the time of the trip to Inaba until Christmas, Minato Arisoto was slowly losing it." I told her. "His grip on his sanity, rationality and self-restraint grew slippier and slippier and slippier until eventually he started creating his own personae at will and he threw all the fetters that kept him human into the scrap heap. After that point, he would jump out of planes to joust against fighter jets. He was an unstoppable force with nothing to hold him back. It took half the school being massacred in a battle intended to capture him to remind him of his humanity, and even that didn't hold him to reason for very long."

She nodded at that. She'd noticed that too.

"During that time, right and wrong were very malleable concepts for him." I explained. "I want to do it, therefore it's right, because I'm going to save humanity. I can do anything, so no one can dictate to me what I can and can't do. I do what I feel like because I feel like doing it." I broke eye contact there out of shame. I had to force myself to look again before I continued. "His mind was so shattered that he couldn't even reason otherwise until January thirty-first, when Nyx made a large hole in his chest."

She nodded.

"At that point, he could have just killed Nyx for good." I explained. "He could have carried on as usual, but at that moment he saw what he had become and he decided to get rid of me. To fix his self. The great seal wasn't just for Nyx and Erebus, it was for him. To keep everyone else safe."

She nodded again, crying.

"I was responsible for Mitsuru." I told her. "Over time I took a prominent role in his psyche in the relationship. When it came to it, he resisted. I didn't. Miss Yamano was a joke." I continued. "A sick, sadistic act to infiltrate the Nyxists because of some bright idea that he had, one he would normally think about and decide against, at least without backup. Aigis was closest to an actual affair." I explained. "She was an emotional foil that managed to keep him somewhat intact. He knew how that would end, even with everything slipping and he told you about it before hand. You remember that, don't you?"

She nodded, grimly. "I never thought... that..."

I could rip into her. I could remind her that she knew that social linking was a two-way deal. I could point out that she knew this was going to happen all along but she refused to accept it, willingly giving him permission to go off with another woman.

But I didn't.

That would be uncalled for.

That would be something her Shadow would do.

"I'm not going to lie and say that he was blameless." I told her. "He had a measure of control, even if he didn't think about what he was doing half the time. He succumbed to power and decided to redeem himself at the last second. As far as I'm concerned, that was cowardly of him, especially leaving me to clean up his mess, but that's just the reinstated facts."

"So, what." She snapped. "You're saying you forced him to sleep with Mitsuru then told me he did it afterwards?"

"I'm not entirely sure because I didn't even know I existed until he died." I replied. "I won't justify either him or myself to you. But I do ask that you'll forgive me, at least to the level so we can work together."

She nodded, again.

Awkward silence.

"Can I see him?" she asked.

Aaand that's dangerous ground that I wanted to avoid- No, no actually.

That's a reasonable question.

It's a fair request.

"If you can create and maintain a ten foot radius sphere of breathable atmosphere, then I will take you to go see him when we're chained to each other." I told her. "I can't promise you anything from what will come out of it, but I can take you to where his soul currently resides, but you will have to provide the oxygen."

She nodded. "Thanks." She said morosely, wondering if she even wanted to or not. Whatever she saw in him, she clearly saw something worth having if she's still willing to try again after all this time.

You would have thought she would have moved on by now.

But Minato has that effect on people.

His mere presence makes people just want to bend to his will, try to please him, get a reaction to him, until his mere passing glance means the world to them.

...

Yukari's not the only one that needs to move on it seems.

There was a well-timed knock on the door.

"Hey, Yukari, you in there?" Chie asked from the other side. "Everything alright?"

Yukari stood up. "Yeah, I'm fine." she lied, moving to the door. "Coming out in a sec, hold on."

She grabbed the door handle. "Coming?" She asked.

"I'd love to." I told her. "But apparently I need pee. I'm pretty sure you aren't in the mood to watch."

That got a laugh out of her. "Whatever." She smiled, leaving. "Later."

**_SMASH_**

Oh. Oh dear.

_**Thou shalt have our blessing when thou createst a persona of the Twins arcana...**_

Twins.

That's a reversed Lovers.

I smirked, closing the door behind her. "Later." I replied. "Hold on a sec Yukiko."

Now...

How do I pee?

* * *

Came back down around five without any major mishaps. There was food for everyone. Apparently I was invited. Shaweet.

Sat between Yukiko and Marina on the table as Shinji, Ken and Naoki began dishing up.

Is it alright for us to be enjoying a meal together while people are mourning loved ones outside?

Gonna sound cold for this, but yes. It is alright for us to be enjoying ourselves right now.

Some of us are going to die from this.

Even if we don't, every one of us are going to be facing death every night.

For the people who are still alive.

Kill for the living.

Kill for the dead.

"Mitsuru." I said, looking across the table to my 'fiancé'. "I need you to get me a fake identity. Something I can live under for the time being."

"Of course." She nodded, picking up her chopsticks as a bowl was placed in front of her. "Any preferences for your name?"

I leaned forward, catching Naoto's eye. "Hey, Nat." I called from down the table. "Do you object with me taking the family name?"

She looked at me, then glared. "Will you do anything our ancestors would be ashamed of?" She asked.

"Well, seeing as I already wiped out most of the clans for being twisted excuses for human beings, the answer would be most likely." I replied with a shrug. "But, if you were to rephrase the question, then I would only bring honour to the name. And giggles. Mostly honour. And a little violence. Lots of it."

She smirked in spite of herself. "Do as you wish." She replied, leaning back and rejoining her conversation. "You have my consent."

"Great." I grinned, turning back to Mitsuru. "My name's Ryoku Kuzunoha." I told her. "Japanese, mid European, history of a problem solver. Can you get your guys to hook my up?"

She smiled. "Expect your passport and social security number by Monday." See assured me.

So, it's... Wednesday now. Thursday I'll be with Mitsuru, Friday with Kanji, Saturday with a Hierophant, probably Shinji, then I'd most likely spend Sunday with Yukari.

...

Wow we have a lot of Chariots to chose from. Aigis, Kazushi, Rio and Chie. Monday will be a fun day.

Tuesday I'll have to be at school with Kenjamin. Yay.

Let's see... Naoki was a hermit arcana traditionally, so I might be with him this time next week. That makes nine.

So I'll have a week before encountering any potential Arcana difficulties.

Alright, this should be fun.

Yosuke put a hand on mine and Yukiko's shoulders, then put his head between us. "Hey, so we talked to Kanji." He explained. "He's not happy with the situation, but he'll help out with you guys for the next couple of days as long as you don't cause any trouble and let him work. His mom's sick right now, so he's taking care of the family business and can't fight right now, but you can crash at his place whenever it's his turn."

"Thanks man." I told him, Yukiko and Mitsuru nodding.

"I'm guessing you'll have to switch to Kirijo-senpai tonight, since we kinda cheated today." Yosuke continued sheepishly. "Are you alright to escort him around?"

"Of course." Mitsuru nodded. "Do we have any arrangements for Shinjiro to join us in Inaba for the return journey?"

Yosuke shook his head. "Either Rise-chan or Takeba-san's coming on Sunday." he explained. "Seta's uncle flipped his lid and wants you to force a Persona on him."

"What!?" Yukiko whisper-shouted. "Is he serious?"

"It might work, but I have my doubts." Mitsuru interjected. "My father tried many times for myself after I discovered my Persona. I wasn't much older than miss Dojima myself when I discovered my Persona, and my father was powerless to help at that time."

"We thought about that." Yosuke nodded, glancing at Aigis. "That's why Naoto-san's going with you."

"How would that-" Mitsuru began, before stopping herself. "You're going to force him into the television so he can face his shadow. Are you sure that Dojima-san understands the risks involved?"

"If not, then you can chain up to that damned wolf that's in there." Yosuke answered. "Rise-san discovered that it's a hierophant Arcana so it should work, even if you'll have to beat it senseless to stop it from eating your arm off."

"Black Shuck won't be eating anyone for a while." I told him. "It's had its fill."

"Wait, what? Yosuke shout-whispered in my ear, then stepped back. "Never mind, I don't want to know. That thing's nothing but trouble. I'm gonna get to my dinner, we'll talk more later."

Yep, later.

It-a-daki-mat-su.

Right?

* * *

**=}+{=**

* * *

Violence ensues next chapter. Details are details. Let's just say it would blow all minds involved. Epic ensues.


	7. Nightmares and Parachutes

_The doorway into my throne room opened._

_My sword and shield walked in._

_I stood to my feet, walking towards them._

_"They're coming." Aigis told me, nodding gracefully in her white and gold armour, baby blue cloak waving slightly in the non-existent breeze._

_I turned to Yukari. He eyes have changed over the years, but she is still just as beautiful as ever. "Let's just get this over with." She said, flicking her chin as she stood in her pink and brown armour, black cape framing her and concealing the powerful bow she carried._

_I nodded, walking past them both, hand straying to brush Yukari on the hip as I went, my fingers slipping through her armour and touching her skin._

_They followed me as I raised a hand to the doors. I wasn't armoured. I was wearing a short-sleved hoodie and knee-length shorts._

_Armour would slow me down._

_I stood over the balcony, looking towards the horizon as the airships came. Must be those new Humanitas models._

_Why am I making assumptions? I already know what they are._

_And I know the Leviathan Burrow is riding that one there._

_I stepped forward, over the balcony and strode on the air._

_This battle wouldn't involve the others._

* * *

/`''''`\\\\\\)

* * *

I woke up.

I haven't done that in a long time.

Let's see. Hotel room. Sleeping on the couch. Mitsuru's on the bed.

In pyjamas. That's unusual.

Right, switcheroo'd last night, then came here.

Check clock. seven thirty.

And what is that smell?

Why do I think it's me?

Sniff. Sniff.

Oh hey. It is me.

I make human body odours now.

Which means I need to brush teeth, comb hair, wash hair, shave, take showers, ugh.

So much time wasted.

And sleep. I could have done so much without that lack of hours gone.

Yay.

I got up and grabbed the paperwork, deciding on the route to Inaba. Hopefully I'll get to do some driving today.

* * *

"Good morning." Mitsuru yawned, pushing herself upright.

"Morning." I replied. "Who wants first shower?"

"I'll go." Mitsuru volunteered, getting up from the bed. "Try and remember how to shave while I'm in there."

Huh?

* * *

Dang I look haggard.

Serious. That is a serious amount of stubble I am currently rocking.

With the fact that I haven't washed, didn't sleep well, and I'm still getting adjusted to this whole mortality business, I look a mess.

Right then.

Foam is involved in here, right?

Minato usually used an electric razor, but I reckon I can get by on the hotel's free stuff.

* * *

And get by I did. Tell you what, I am good at this whole morning routine for someone who hasn't had a morning for multiple years.

Eight thirty and breakfast is over, and we're about to head out to Inaba, after meeting up with Natalie.

Mitsuru pressed the button on her car keys, and a mercedes's lights flashed. Oooh.

"We'll stop to get you some clean clothes along the way." She said, opening the door. "I've made sure that we aren't followed."

I nodded. "I'll drive." I said, then got to the important business. "Got any good music?"

* * *

Fingers tapped the wheel as I waited at the red light.

_I don't need a parachute_  
_You don't need to ask if I'm okay_  
_I can look after myself_  
_We've been walking for hours now_  
_My feet are starting to itch_  
_Blisters crack all over my skin_  
_And my shoes don't even fit._

_I'm so sorry for the pain,_  
_Sorry for the aches,_  
_Sorry for the moods I'm swinging._  
_But I don't need your hand,_  
_I don't need your heart,_  
_I don't need a parachute._

Green light, time to go pick up Nat.

_I have tried to carry you_  
_As far as I can go but I'm not strong_  
_Enough to do this on my own_  
_I pack my bags to leave this town_  
_Cause I'm not welcome back here any more_  
_Upon these shores_

Mitsuru's phone rang, and I turned Charlie Simpson down. "It's the guy you left in charge." I told her before she reached into her pocket. "You should talk to him. People need your business to eat."

_I'm so sorry for the pain,_  
_Sorry for the aches,_  
_Sorry for the moods I'm swinging._  
_But I don't need your hand,_  
_I don't need your heart,_  
_I don't need a parachute._

_I'm so sorry for the greed,_  
_Sorry for the hate,_  
_Sorry for the mess I left you_  
_But I don't want it back_  
_I don't need it back_  
_I don't need a parachute._

Ignoring Mitsuru's boring business calls, I focused on solving the real mystery.

Why does she have English musicians on her iPod?

* * *

And by the time we picked Nat up, we were listening to Chopin.

"I was hoping you would be able to answer some of my questions while we travelled, Ryoku-san." Natalie said, buckling up in the back seat.

"My name's Minatos." I pointed out to her. "Ryoku's a fake name on a fake identity. I'll be using others by the end of the day."

Naoto smiled, in spite of herself. "Very well Minatos-san. Are you responsible for the murder of the late Isamu Minami?"

That ruined my great mood. "Nat- you okay with me calling you Nat?" I asked, then shrugged. "First, it's only homocide if Humans kill Humans. I'm a Shadow. Mostly. Kinda having an identity crisis at the moment. Anyways." I coughed for the sake of it. It made my lungs rattle. "Second, There's a difference between Murder and Suicide."

"So you admit that you are guilty." Naoto asked as I pulled out into the road.

"Not at all, I'm proud of what I did, and I'm sure that young lady whose name I can't quite recall at this point was thankful for my help."

"And the same for the other world leaders you have assassinated?" Naoto asked.

"For the most part." I shrugged, keeping my eye on the road. "Child trafficking was to take the poor kids out of the hands of pedos and into the hands of mobsters who I am paying quite a large sum to raise well and provide education and shelter for. I gave a number of those kids the ability to summon Persona so they can defend each other from any threats. So far, that plan's going well and at the rate it's going, the child sex trade should be completely wiped out within ten years. I've got the whole thing taken down already, except for the stragglers who haven't quite got the point yet. Once those children reach adulthood, they'll spread out and eliminate anyone who tries to set up shop. As an added bonus, the mobsters stop selling drugs and loan sharking and start running orphanages. Win Win situation for everybody."

I caught her eyes in the mirror to make sure she was understanding where I was coming from. "That is the difference between me and a global vigilante, Natalie Arisoto. I don't murder. I want people to choose to be good. I only remove those who refuse to change and are making life hell for everyone else. Terrorists want domination, control, to feel power. I'm merely the Minato Arsoto revival project."

And that's why I'm driving. Either of those two would have slammed on the brakes or veered off the road at that statement.

"Now when you both make your reports to SEELE and Interpol and whatever, make sure to mention that." I told them, pulling into the Drive-Thru of a Wacdonalds. "This place still does breakfasts, right?"

* * *

Long road trip is long. Serious. Even with the stop to pick up some clothes and toiletries for me. And lunch along the way.

...

Driving long distances is hard.

Guh.

I could be in Argentina ending gang wars right now. But Nooooooooo, I have to hang around old friends and family who thought that I was dead and kill demons and pretend to be all casual about it.

...

Grah.

But hey. Spending time with my sorta-sister and Mitsuru can't be that bad, right?

...

Awkward silence.

"So, how was that whole investigation thing, eh?" I asked, trying to get the conversation going again. "Bet the whole Adachi thing was a shocker, huh?"

...

Ugh.

* * *

Eventually, we got there.

To Inaba at least.

There was a GEWEHR road block in the way.

"Mitsuru, have you guys been leading me into a trap?" I asked with a slight smirk, glancing as she contained her rage.

She accomplished it quite well. If you didn't know her well, you'd have no idea that she was about to snap someone's neck.

"I had nothing to do with this." She stated, glaring daggers through the windshield at the oncoming suit.

I nodded. "Still, glad to see that SEELE's competent enough to know I'm depowered, even if they're stupid enough to try and do something about it."

Knock on the window next to me. I rolled it down. "Is there an officer, problem?" I asked, making it clear that I wasn't drunk.

He recognised me in a second, and backed off, drawing his magnum and pointing it at my neck. "GET OUT OF THE CAR! NOW! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!"

I reached to undo my seatbelt, and Mitsuru put her hand on mine. "You're still chained down." She warned. "You can't speed your way through them like before." Unsaid but clear was the fact that she was going to slow me down.

Something she was ashamed of.

I winked at her.

Silently, she also undid her seatbelt, as did Nat behind us, and we all stepped out of the car.

Thankfully the chain passed through the metal effortlessly, so we had at least that much distance between us before the chain started to choke people.

"HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!" The suit shouted, and the rest of his team drew their weapons and prepared their Personae. "GET TO THE GROUND, NOW!"

Mitsuru looked at me from behind.

Then she jumped and slid over the car bonnet as my hand lashed out, grabbed the gunman's wrists, twisted them so the gun pointed down and slammed my chained fist into his face, sending him flying and his dropped gun into my free hand.

Mitsuru's frost shield blocked the wave of bullets from the roadblock and I returned fire as the swordsmen came. "Showtime." Naoto snarled, taking cover behind the mercedes and firing from her revolver.

A gun fight in the middle of the afternoon in rural Japan. These guys did not think this one through, did they?

Especially with the gun restrictions in Japan, but I digress. Still got enough bullets to do the job.

Then came the Personae. Undine, Attis, Loki, Ares, Arahabaki, Bishamonten, they're really going for it, aren't they?

"GET READY TO HURT, DAMMIT!"

The GEWEHR suits at the back turned to get a fresh load of motorcycle in their face. Kanji roared, swinging the bike and launching Rokuten Maoh to tear a hole in their defence with his burning blade. There was another battlecry as Funky charged in, swinging his pole and taking the GEWEHR suits out one by one.

And subtlety is out of the window, but that's the way I like it.

Following Mitsuru's lead, we charged forwards, grabbing swords along the way and cut down our attackers. We've been doing a pretty good job so far at preserving life, aiming for non-lethal spots, chopping limbs, but reality of the situation?

BLAM

These guys are here to kill.

"FUNKY!" Kanji shouted, then ducked under an axe swing and slammed his bike into the guy's forehead. "GET UP DAMMIT!"

Unfortunately, the gunwoman double-tapped Funky to make sure, then turned on Kanji, before receiving some lead in her ear from Naoto.

I've forgotten the poor guy's actual name.

Damn.

The battle was over already.

Corpses and wounded suits filled the streets.

I knew each of these people by name once.

You'd think that would make it easier to keep them alive.

It didn't.

All I saw was how much their families were convinced they went out to work each day to fight bad guys and make the world a better place.

And they killed Funky.

They would've killed Nat if she let them.

If I let them.

"CALL AN AMBULANCE!" Kanji shouted, kneeling over Funky in anguish. "HURRY DAMMIT!"

I put a hand on his shoulder.

He punched me in the face.

I hugged him.

He sobbed.

He swore.

He heard the sirens coming.

I ran him back to the Mercedes and drove out of there.

Naoto took over the emotional stuff.

I drove around, looking for another way into the town.

Except...

Dammit.

They'll have blocked those off too.

GEWEHR...

How many people need to die today..?

* * *

We dumped the car near the river and torched it, then headed for Kanji's place via the TV. Hopefully GEWEHR would have realised what had happened and bailed before this became a full scale police investigation.

Hell. Of course it is.

There were six corpses, twenty wounded.

I made sure to dump the gun I stole back with the guy I took it from.

Make the thing look like a gang war.

Normally, I'd stuff their pockets with cocaine to add to weight to the story.

No time for that this time, though.

And, no drugs on hand to contaminate the crime scene with.

Kanji punched a large tree down as we walked along the brook. "Dammit... we just came to see what the fuss was about... Why the hell did he have to die..?"

Don't monologue. Whatever you do, Shadow, don't monologue. It never helps.

Naoto helped him along.

She was good at that.

She and Kanji had been close for a while.

* * *

A couple hours later and we'd washed the blood out of our hair.

One advantage of Kanji's mother being in the hospital was that he had the house to himself.

Kanji slammed the Memo on the table, updated and detailed for him, since he was out of the loop, and he was fuming.

"We're gonna kill this thing." he snarled. "I don't care what I gotta do, this thing is going down."

I nodded. "They took Nametame too, didn't they?"

Naoto turned to look at me in shock, and then to Kanji as he nodded. "He was protecting us the whole time, but once they got under that shield?" Kanji spat, his face a picture of rage. "I don't know how we survived. Those Shadows weren't natural. They were too much."

"What about last night?" Mitsuru asked, wondering if there was any correlation.

"Nuthin." He shrugged. "We holed up at Nana-chan's and held the fort, but nothing came. Dojima-san turned to a big, white, thing like everyone else, with Nana-chan freaking out about the whole thing."

"Does she have a Persona?" I asked, getting to the crux of the matter.

"She ain't fighting." Kanji snapped. "No way in hell am I gonna let you do that to her."

"I wouldn't do that to her." I told him. She'd be useless as a child soldier. "I'm trying to keep her safe."

He grunted, leaning back against the wall. "Aren't we all..?" he asked dismissively.

* * *

Dojima and Nanako showed up around eight-ish, both visibly shaken and tired. "You the guy I was told about?" He asked, ignoring the greetings as he walked in behind Kanji.

I nodded, bracing myself to get a fist to the face. It seems to be the common greeting nowadays.

It never came.

He just sat down, Nanako sitting down behind him and Naoto.

She was so brave, so bold, so outgoing...

Until that night three days ago.

Heck. That'd mess any kid up.

"I want you to shove me in the TV." Dojima said, looking me in the eye. "I need a Persona."

"Having a Persona won't just get you into Veritas De Skoll, and not having one won't automatically exclude you." I told him, glancing briefly at Nanako as I did so.

She visibly shrunk from me.

"I saw what you did on the outskirts of town." Dojima stated. "Frost burns, sword wounds, snapped wrists, you think I don't know what's going on?" He asked. "This isn't some murderer kidnapping a few people with a damned TV screen, this is open war and I need to protect My Daughter." He stressed those last two words for emphasis.

Nanako would have said something.

Before the trauma.

...

I reached into my trousers and pulled out an evoker, tossing it to him. "Prove it." I said, leaning back. "Blow your brains out."

That got Nanako's attention. She gripped the back of her dad's shirt.

He gave me a look as if to say 'Behold, thou art stupid'. "Don't play games with me." He said, holding the evoker between his thumb and forefinger. "This toy couldn't do anything."

I grinned, not caring how the atmosphere in the room turned colder every second I continued this. "Do I care?" I asked him. "Put it to your head and pull the trigger."

"Dad-"

"Not now Nanako." Dojima told her, quickly and comfortingly, before turning back to me. "And you'll give me a Persona?" He asked.

How easily does man forget the lesson painfully learnt?

"If you want one." I said, gesturing for him to continue while Nanako clearly wanted this to stop.

Ryotaro Dojima considered it.

"Dad, you-" Nanako started, but was stopped as Dojima primed the gun and put it to his head.

Nanako's blood ran cold. "Dad..?"

"DOJIMA!" Kanji shouted. "The HELL ARE YOU-?!"

"DADDY?!"

**BLAM**

Dojima was on the floor, pinned down by Kaguya Hime, the armoured princess holding him down with one hand and the evoker hand in the air with another.

Nanako was panting, sweating, and dived onto her father, sobbing. Begging. Pleading.

And he starts to remember _why_ he wants to fight.

And realises why it's important _not_ to fight.

Because if he does...

Then Nanako would be forced to follow him into battle.

"Dammit..." Dojima swore, putting his hands around his daughter as Kaguya Hime faded away "Sorry Nanako... it's okay..."

* * *

**=]+[=**

* * *

About time too. Shame to leave you hanging there like that, but you've been waiting a while.

Sorry for the delay, I'll try to keep an acceptable pace in future. Lemme know what you think. What do you want to see more of, what questions do you have, how can I improve?

And yeah. I just did those things. I was forcing the story along. I'm gonna take a break, get some Shinji-108 written as that's what I seem to have fuel for at the moment. I'm bringing in Cortana and the Flood. Enjoy!


	8. Finding Reason

Guys? I'm tired. No idea why. I just lost my mojo lately, but things are starting to come together.

Tayuke, you hit the nail on the head. Thank you.

Let's take another swing at this.

* * *

**Finding Reason.**

* * *

Next day was dull.

Get up.

Brush teeth.

Shave.

Wash.

Brush hair.

Get dressed.

Eat breakfast.

Mind the shop with Kanji.

Mitsuru's still around.

A lot of police trying to work out what happened with the gunfight.

Lunch.

Minding the shop with Kanji.

"So, what do you plan to do?" Mitsuru asked me.

I looked at her.

"Dunno what there is to do." I told her. "Can't exactly go anywhere chained down like this, and I still don't know who the enemy is. How'd things go talking to GEHIRN anyways?"

She glared.

Then she stood up.

"Arisoto."

Hm?

WHAM

WHAT THE-

CHRUCK-THUD

"THE HELL- WHU?!"

OOMPH

"WHAT THE HELL MITSURU?!" I shouted eventually, shoving Kanji off me. "IT WAS-"

"You really are a Shadow, aren't you?" Mitsuru asked, stepping through the hole in the wall with her steaming fist. "Gloating in other people's weaknesses, rolling in your own pathetic little hole that you dug for yourself. Refusing to attempt just in case you fail."

I glared at Mitsuru as I pushed myself onto my feet. "What're you-"

"Look at me."

I shut my mouth at Mitsuru's order and stood up straight. Mitsuru was mad. Still not too sure what it is she's mad at... and that's not good because I should be able to-

GLURK

I doubled over the fist Mitsuru had shoved into my stomach.

"I am sick." She snarled. "And tired. Of the way you look at me. At everyone."

She leaned in so her lips were almost touching my ear.

"Like I'm a piece of dirt you found on your shoe." she whispered.

What?

A-are you serious?

Wait, _what?_

Mitsuru pulled back, and I fell to my knees.

...

What?

"Uh, Kirijo-san?" Kanji asked. "I think you broke him..."

What?

"Good." She said. "I'm glad he's taken notice."

Is she..?

"Yeah, but isn't he someone we... don't want to have a mental breakdown?"

"Tatsumi-chan, is everything alright?" Another voice asked.

"Huh?" Kanji asked. "Oh, Megumi-san."

I stood up and walked out of the shop, dragging Kanji with me.

"HURK!" He complained. "HEY, WAIT!"

"Hey, Tatsumi-chan?" The other girl asked.

"Hrgh, Watch the shop for me, alright?! Hey!" Kanji shouted, hand on my shoulder. "The hell's wrong with-"

"Daidara metalworks is down this way, right?" I asked him, not slowing down.

"Huh? Uh, yeah, but why are we?"

"I need an anvil." I explained.

"Uh, okay?" Kanji said. "Look, sorry about back there-"

"We'll fix your wall." I interrupted.

"Not what I meant." Kanji replied. "Look, if you need someone to talk to-"

"I don't need to talk." I snapped. "I need something big and heavy to smash."

"You do realise that's not going to make the problem go away, right?"

"Oh, yes it will." I assured him.

"No, it'll just push the pain aside while people yell at you some more." Kanji warned. "Trust me, I've been there. It's not a happy road you're going on."

"Couldn't care less."

* * *

"She'll still be there after you've thrown your tantrum." Kanji pointed out.

I kicked the door to the metalworks down. "HEY!" Daidara shouted, reaching for a weapon of some sort. "GET OUT OF MY-"

I pushed him aside and grabbed the hammer in his belt. "Sorry Daidara-san, this guy's just-"

I yanked Kanji into the back room and pushed him to the ground, pulling the chain attached to his neck and my hand onto the anvil. "Whoa, man, you seriously need to-"

I brought the hammer down on the chain.

_TDUNNG_

"AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!"

DAMN THAT HURTS! LET'S SMASH IT AGAIN!

_TDUNNG_

"AAARRGHH!"

_TDUNNG_

"ARGH!" Kanji yelled as I stepped back, wiping the sweat off my forehead.

This isn't working... Let's try...

I grabbed the tongs that were heating in the fire, and brought them over to the anvil. "The hell are you-" Kanji started to ask, but stopped when I started prying the links apart and IT'S HURTING LIKE CRAP BUT LET'S HAMMER AGAIN ANYWAY!

_TDUNNG_

"GAHAHAHAARGHH!"

RIGHT!

DROP EVERYTHING AND ARMAGEDDON THAT HO!

* * *

**_"AAAAAARRGHHH!"_**

* * *

Eventually, an axe split the chain in two.

I sat in the corner of the metalworks, gasping for air, drenched in sweat, looking at the chain around my wrist dissolve into dust.

"Feel better ya freak?" Kanji gasped eventually, nursing his neck.

"Like crap, so that's a plus." I laughed. "You?"

"Top of the world." Kanji laughed. "So, freedom?"

"Mortality." I told him. "I've got, maybe, two, three years left to live?"

"Ouch man." Kanji winced, "Hated having a colar that much?"

I laughed. "Hated what it was doing to me." I said, getting to my feet. "How it completely twisted me into something I must never be."

Kanji looked at me. "What, someone's tool?"

"Been a tool since day one." I pointed out. "But not someone who treat people like dead weight. Never someone held down by others."

I looked back at him as he got up. "I'm sorry for treating you like a burden. Could I ask for your help?"

He nodded. "Alright." He said, following me out.

* * *

Dunno where Daidara went, but I'm guessing Mitsuru bought him off, as she was on the streets behind us.

The Emperor. The Empress. The Fool.

A red ribbon of light swam around my right arm for a moment, then vanish.

"Do you realise what you've done?"

I turned to face the woman that spoke. Platinum blonde. Blue eyes. Pale skin. Blue hoodie, red skirt. "I almost didn't recognise you with your clothes on." Mitsuru jabbed, and I would have high-fived that, except I'm-

Know. Screw appearances. "Catty. I like it." I told Mitsuru, holding my hand out for a high-five. She glanced at me questioningly, but conceded, slapping my palm.

"Who's this chick?" Kanji asked, stepping into formation next to me.

"I am World." She told us, ignoring the passing shoppers who went their way, gossiping about something pointless.

I narrowed my gaze.

"Ewa Aloni." I said. "Born Seventeenth of April nineteen ninety-three in Warsaw, Poland. Fool Arcana, now World. You defeated Bahomet three years ago. I know you."

She frowned. "You destroyed the chain." She stated. "Why?"

I tilted my head at her.

"I'll tell you what I'll do." I said to her, walking towards her. "I'll tell you a story."

She flew towards me, her kneecap aimed for my face.

I put my hands into my pocket and headbutted her knee.

Bone cracked.

She fell to the ground, screaming.

The crowd stopped.

"Can you feel it?" I asked her, kneeling next to her as she clutched at her injured knee. "Can you feel the singing? The songs that make the maya dance and the hablerie laugh?"

She shuffled back, away from me as she rammed Dia down her leg, and I stood up, aware of the attention we were getting.

Two gaijin fighting outside the weapon shop, the day after a massive gun fight happens?

How could they not watch.

"The symphony of jealousy and envy and longing for attention." I told her. "The concerto of love and loss and birth and death and joy and sorrow. The nocturne of secrets that must never be told, , the étude of knowledge that must never be spoken, the rhapsody of life and the sonata of pain. The Serenade of sense and the marzuka of madness. That endless waltz that forms the melody of mankind."

She looked at me like I was mad. Maybe I was, but that didn't change the question. "Can you hear them singing?" I repeated.

She scrambled to her feet and raised her hand to the sky. White bone began to circle around the people around us and the sky began to pale.

"NO!" I shouted, raising my own hand and tearing the cloak of silence away from the world, ending the Veritas De Sköll before it began. "You are NOT hiding behind the covers from THIS bogeyman, little girl!"

She fell flat on her backside, her confident facade slipping. "That's right, you like to think of yourself as a higher being, but you are just like the rest of us humans."

She laughed, starting to get back onto her feet. "Big words from a Shatten, don't you-"

"Not today." I warned, stopping her dead in her ascent. "Not now. Not after what you did. You are still clinging to the power given you of Philemon, and you are nothing without your Persona. You got one whiff of World, that one moment of absolute Lucidity and you got drunk. You are a schoolyard bully that has just been tied to the pole by that one kid and are becoming more and more aware of the imminent possibility of having your undies pulled down so everyone can laugh at you."

Hm, maybe too far given the situation? But who cares, there's a lovely view beyond the point of no return.

"Go back to your friends." I told her. "Bring your Erebus's and your Chernobog's and anything else you have to throw. I will take it all and I will devour."

I narrowed my glare. "Run home Ewa." I commended her. "I am humanity's weakness incarnate. I will show you the difference between the Universe and you New World Fools."

Her eyes shot wide open, her hand slipped, she landed on her hip and bum, and I knew I hit the nail on the head, even by accident.

She was in sheer panic.

She hadn't taken me seriously before.

She had no idea what she was dealing with.

She had no idea that I make it up as I go along and hope that I get lucky, just like I just did.

And she wasn't even skilled enough to know how to hide the fact that I was right.

She rolled onto her front and scrambled away, getting to her feet and summoning a Persona- a red dragon Persona and flew away.

And the onlookers watched in awe, trying to figure out just what the hell happened.

And the world faded into blue.

* * *

**=]+[=**

* * *

Short chapter, but thought I'd get this up since I managed it. Going to write down a timeline for me to cover, and then we'll see if I can manage something regular.

And this hasn't been beta'd yet, so it's not polished.


	9. Business over Dinner

**August 2014**

Four months.

That's how long it's been since I claimed humanity.

I still haven't chosen my own identity, but the kids have taken to calling me Chad.

As in Shadow. Get it?

No. Still not funny. Never was in the first place, but it works for now.

I blame Junpei.

"How is Junpei lately?" Mitsuru asked, taking a sip out of her drink.

"Pretty good, Chidori's adapted to her memories returning." I told her, cutting into my steak. "We had a handful when we went there after Inaba back in April, since Medea wasn't exactly a happy camper."

* * *

(/')

* * *

**April 2014**

I stood behind Yukari as she knocked on the door. She picked me up from Inaba yesterday, but she hadn't been able to get a sustainable atmosphere so no trip to the moon today.

I glanced at Chie, who tried not to make eye contact. She only came because, being the Arcana after Yukari, we thought that I'd need to be chained up to her tomorrow.

Now that the whole chain business was out the window, she kinda felt like a third wheel.

"Thanks." Chie said eventually as Yukari kept nodding.

"Don't mention it." I told her. "Yukari's fixed me up from worse before."

Chie gave me one of those looks, so I tapped her on the forehead.

* * *

_Nyx flexed its wings to full length to intimidate me, then raised its left hand into the air as a ball of dark red energy began to form. Night Queen._

_Whatever it is, it cannot be good._

_I summoned Vishnu and Atavaka to protect me with Infinity as Nyx rammed the ball of death into the ground. The barrier shattered under its force and I was knocked back, my armour getting blown apart and my ribcage blown right open._

_I coughed up blood as Nyx approached me. "Damn…" I choked, hurriedly summoning a card._

_It got half way there before disappearing. What the hell!?_

_~ You're panicking! Calm Down! ~_

_I CAN'T BLOODY CALM DOWN!_

_I rolled out of the sword swing and coughed as my lungs flopped against the cold floor. I huddled them with my arm and ran._

_Nyx's sword followed me, and I ducked under one swing and jumped back from the next. I tripped up over my ankle and hit the ground, so I rolled to my knees and ran again._

_I dived across the ground, screaming as my lungs were torn open by the friction, but grabbed the Bolter. I twisted around and fired at Nyx, its mighty Dakka doing half as much damage to me than it was to Nyx._

_Then the holes in my lungs closed up. I glanced upwards to see Yukari healing me. "Come on, don't give up!" She shouted, healing me as fast as she could._

* * *

Chie staggered at the memory. _"Yeah, things got pretty nuts back in the day."_ I whispered to her behind Yukari's back, since she was still hammering the door in.

"I see where she gets it from." Chie replied quietly. "The crazy I mean."

"JUNPEI IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR THIS SECOND I SWEAR-"

"Hold yer horses, I'm coming..." Junpei's grotty voice replied through the intercom as I silently fist-bumped Chie. She probably didn't intend to do that, but I did it anyways with a wink.

Gotta love sharing secrets with your ex-girlfriend's stepsister.

* * *

(/')

* * *

Mitsuru snorted, but recovered quickly. "You know that her mentor at the hospital keeps threatening to prescribe her bipolar drugs." I continued, pressing the funny button until it started to hurt. "But he also keeps calling Keisuke girls names so I wouldn't put too much stock in his opinion."

She smiled again, wiping her lip. "How was Chidori-san?" She asked, changing the subject again.

"Fine, once I stuck my hand in her head and we had a heart-to-heartless." I told her with a smirk. "Once we got an axe in her hand and threw her to the Shadows, she was fantastic. In a supporting role, she can give Fuuka a run for her money any day, though she doesn't have the same absolute defense that Fuuka does to go with it. Strategically, her Persona is a lot like Penthesilea, but in composition, Medea has a lot more in common with Io."

Mitsuru raised an eyebrow. "How so?" She asked.

"Like Io, Medea is a life giver, albeit more extreme in that regard and better skilled at the sensing of it." I explained. "But another similarity to her now to Penthesilea is her need for redemption. Just like how the amazonian entered the battle of Troy to redeem herself for the death of her queen, Chidori has entered our battle for her redemption. It's not a complete resolution as we know it, but she's starting to drift from the archetype of Medea, betraying her father for her love of the enemy hero, I can see her resolution coming soon."

"Our resolutions began with Akihiko's death." Mitsuru pointed out. "Why would-"

"I can't see the future." I told her. "I don't know when and nor will I try to facilitate the conditions for Chidori to resolve. But sacrificing someone to cause emotional growth is not something I would ever choose to do."

She relaxed slightly, and I'll admit. It hurt to have my integrity questioned like that, but I don't blame her for wondering that about me.

Minato was a loose cannon and a volatile person at the best of times, and as his Shadow, who knows what I'm capable of?

"Gather the others." Mitsuru decided, standing from her chair. "I'll clear the deck for the briefing."

I nodded, looking out the window into the mediterranean.

The operation will be tonight.

* * *

=]+[=

* * *

I'M NOT DEAD

Just been preoccupied. Sorry for the delay, I've made several attempts at righting in the last few months and forcing it isn't getting anywhere.

But we have a pulse. I've started something.

SO! Sorry for the short chapter, but it's something. You will get something soon.

Also, I'm starting University in September. Believe it or not, I actually think my output will increase given the structure and brain stimulation. And access to my own computer, hopefully.

TIll then, Peace out, next chapter will come when it comes.


	10. Tentarafools

This was not supposed to happen.

* * *

**August. 2014.**

**Off the coast of Crete.**

Mitsuru. Yukari. Naoto. Adachi. Elizabeth.

Fuuka was providing support from Japan. The others are providing waiting in backup in the TV world.

_~ "Everyone ready?" ~_ Yosuke asked, his voice relayed via Fuuka.

I looked around the deck, and the others nodded.

_~ "Begin the operation."_ ~ Yosuke ordered, and the white fangs rose and consumed those around us. Elizabeth opened the scroll, and weapons flew into the air. Adachi caught two magnums, Mitsuru a katana and rapier, Naoto a shortsword and revolver, Yukari a shortbow and a pair of hatchets.

We slung our secondary weapons over our shoulders and turned around and attacked the Shadows that formed on the ship. This was just the preliminary wave, the main event would be later.

I leapt forward, spinning as I kicked the middle head out of a Hierophant totem out into the sea, but the remaining heads became Haberdasheries- quickly picked off by Yukari who jumped over a group of Mayas, bounced off the ship wall and launched three more arrows into some wyvern Shadows I'd never seen before.

Naoto and Adachi danced around each other, firing bullets like they had practiced for this. Truth was we'd only got Adachi out the week before, and only by Naoto and a certain Interpol agent (probably me) pulling a LOT of strings as bringing him to help out of the Cypher case. Which Naoto is only pretending to chase up now, since she knows it's me.

Elizabeth had rose into the air, casting spells from her tome to provide an aerial bombardment upon the Shadows, Mitsuru flying through the Shadows like a hot bullet through so many watermelons.

_~"Chad, Yukari, starboard!"~_

Yukari and I turned and opened fire on the octopus Shadows that began to leap from the water. Aquatic Shadows suck, since you can't attack them the usual way. I flipped up Yukari's skirt to grab one of her evokers while she launched arrow after arrow into the sea. "MEDUSA!" I shouted, pulling the trigger against my head and summoning the snake witch to bombard the Shadows with stones from above.

_~"BEHIND YOU!" ~_

Yukari twisted and launched an arrow right through the mask of a monkey Shadow that leapt down from the deck above us. The black mist fell straight through me as I ran up the white ship wall. "Thanks Rise!"

_~"No problem,"~_ Rise replied, _~"But you've got a large group of Shadows gathering to your left!"~_

I followed her instructions and hurled a deck chair across the surfing pool to disperse the black cloud that was gathering atop the rock climbing wall. It'd been like this for months- Akihiko would show up a week before a large attack and tell us when and where, and we would have to travel and fight. The hard part was not using up everyone's vacation time on surprise trips to Toronto, or Shanghai.

We lucked out on the Cruise, since Mitsuru and I had actually booked it by happy coincidence. Getting another two cabins wasn't that hard, just meant I had to share with Adachi.

Also kinda ruined the romantic getaway we planned, since technically I am her fiancé. At least, that's the cover I have for the fake identity she cooked up for me. Funny how a jape at a party game escalates like that.

_~"Here it comes, get ready!"~_

I leapt into the air as a twelve-foot silverback of a hierophant roared, banging its chest as I smacked it portside and into the path of Naoto and Adachi's bullets. Flesh scattered the sky, and I launched a fireball to finish it off before I even hit the deck.

The Shadow exploded, and I rolled to punch through another, fist cracking through armour as my new opponent struggled for breath. Elizabeth dropping lighting all around me to fry some others that I missed. Gripping the armor plating of the Samurai Shadow I just killed, I threw it through the neck of a rising sea serpent Shadow that Mitsuru finished off with a rising vertical slash.

"Nicely done!" I shouted, grinning as I jogged towards the main tower of the ship. The boss Shadow was standing on the top, between the radio and satellite dishes, and he was getting bigger. I used to know the technical terms for these things, but since becoming human, omniscience doesn't come naturally anymore.

_~"I got its weakness!"~_ Rise told me, since Fuuka and Yosuke were tending to the others. _~"Use fire attacks!"~_

Evoker spinning in my hand as I ran up the glass-plated walls, I shifted Persona. "RAGNAROK!" I shouted, blowing my brains out.

Something appeared, dropping doomsday flames upon the ship. It vaguely occured to me that I wasn't carrying a Persona that knew Ragnarok, yet here it was.

I think I'm getting somewhere with this theory of mine.

"HERE!" Yukari shouted below me, tossing one of her hatchets. I caught it, spinning it into a reverse grip as I backflipped up the top, clipping the burning Shadow's chin with my foot, then its torso with the axe, and launched the Hierophant down onto the deck, where Aigis finished it off with a chainsaw blade that came from her wrist.

"Nice of you to join us." I commented, landing beside the mechanical maiden. "Anyone else coming?"

"Junpei and Seta are getting ready." She commented, looking me over. "You're bleeding."

I touched my forehead. Sweaty, but no trauma scars. I followed her gaze to by shins, which were quite badly burnt. Adrenaline wearing off, they REALLY HURT LIKE CRAP "DAMMIT WOMAN!" I shouted at Aigis, hopping as I clutched one of my legs. "DON'T TELL ME THESE THINGS!"

"Don't be such a baby then." Yukari replied as Isis healed my wounds. "We done for now?"

_~" That's the first wave." ~_ Fuuka explained as Mitsuru, Adachi, Naoto and Elizabeth regrouped around us. _~"The main Shadow hasn't appeared yet, but we're making good time- GET DOWN!" ~_

We did, and my blood ran cold as an RPG flew over our heads and collided with the control tower. Elizabeth created a barrier above us, shielding us from the falling glass and steel as I rolled over and surveyed the damage.

This is a luxury cruise liner. It's designed to deal with things like staying upright in storms, not defending itself from attackers. If one of those hits the hull, this thing is going down with around 3000 passengers and crew.

I stood up, looking into the floodlights that shone from the port side.

Three boats- a dozen or so people on each, everyone with assault rifles and that guy is holding a Persona card.

"MOVE!" I shouted, ushering everyone to the other side of the ship as Joan of Arc leapt down from above, spinning her sword around her as she unleashed Garu spells upon us. Yukari charged her, changing Persona to Cybele as she loaded her bow, firing one arrow that turned into a thousand to quell the gunfire that riddled the ship.

"What happened?" Mitsuru asked.

_~"I-I don't know!"~_ Fuuka replied. _~"They covered their traces somehow, I couldn't detect them!"~_

Dammit. Did they know Chidori and Rio were both seven and eight months pregnant? How would they? Is it just coincidence that they attacked on the FIRST mission they both sat out on?

Yukari slid down the wall, healing the holes in her shoulder, ribs and leg as she picked a bullet out of her cheek. "Dammit..." She swore. "I don't know how you put up with it." She added, slapping her new skin as Adachi and Naoto fired back at out attackers.

Click, Click. "That's it." Adachi said, sliding down as Naoto loaded some more bullets into her revolver. "I'm out."

Damn. "Prepare Oracle." Naoto ordered, getting back up to fire. "I have three shots left."

I nodded. "Aigis, you and me are going to charge on three." I told her, and she nodded.

BLAM. "One." I counted as Naoto fired.

BLAM "Two." Aigis nodded, and Naoto turned the gun on herself. "THREE!"

SMASH! The two of us and Naoto's Persona charged through the storm of bullets, each of us launching attacks right back at our enemies as we got closer. The persona fizzled out, and Aigis and I vaulted over the fence, landing on two of our gunmen before turning back to back to each other. I kicked a gun into my hand and opened fire, Aigis doing the same from her fingers as our enemies turned their guns on us.

Elizabeth kept the barriers high, deflecting most of the bullets from us, but I still felt my back get wet from Aigis's blood as hot lead punched into my torso. They were avoiding head shots, meaning they knew how to fight against Persona users, but we still got a dozen or so of them before they took cover and rolled a grenade at us.

I switched to Surtr and stamped on the grenade, only for it to explode into ice shards, which sent me flying into the air. I grunted in pain, switching Persona to something self-healing as I rolled in the air beginning my descent as I launched a Garu Spell behind me, rocketing myself back to the melee.

Yukari and Mitsuru had flanked one side of the deck, Naoto and Adachi taking the other. Adachi swung the katana through heads and Naoto stabbed, Mitsuru thrusting her rapier into body after body as Yukari cut a path with her hatchet and cast a MaDiarahan to heal Aigis and me.

We sure as hell needed it.

_~"Oracle ready!"~_ Fuuka shouted, and an explosion of light devoured the remaining ships. I quickly counted the souls that were consumed in the energy, and there must've been a small army of fifty mercenaries who came to attack us.

And then it was over.

I collapsed, landing on my backside as everyone panted for breath. We were spent, energy and ammunition. We did not need a surprise attack from a group of Persona using Pirates right now.

"Excellent work." Mitsuru managed, clutching her side as the red stained her blouse. "Fuuka, is the Shadow incoming?"

...

"Fuuka, respond." Mitsuru stated. "Fuuka, do you read me?"

...

Silence.

My head felt empty.

"They've cut the link somehow." Naoto deducted. "They spent our ammunition, distracted us, and cut our link with the others, giving their lives in the process. Why?" She asked, looking around for clues.

"No identification here." Adachi said, dropping a wallet onto the deck. "Could be suicide bombers."

"But why didn't they use Persona..?" I snarled, kicking a corpse as I tried to think.

Wait.

That movement wasn't right.

I bent down, sniffing. I grabbed a hand, looked at it, then licked it, dropping it instantly.

"Demonata." I realised. "When the hell have there been human demons?"

"Not the Jakkai?" Mitsuru asked, Adachi checking the teeth while Naoto and Aigis caught up with where we were getting at.

"No, they're humanoid demons." I explained, Adachi silently agreeing with me. "These are humans that were created through demonic fusion."

"Previous Persona users battled against Hitler and his army." Naoto suggested. "Is this the same principle?"

"No clue..." I replied, looking down at the demon spawn. "Our main problem, however, is our sudden lack of Support. How're they blocking-?"

I felt a spike of energy behind us. Turning around, I saw it.

No, above. Big. Hierophant. Dressed in scarlet robes and covered in gold. Dozens of massive snake tails came from his waist, instead of legs, and each finger was a snake's head. Black beard. Massive muscles under that red robe.

Typhon. The father of all monsters.

Fire erupted from his fingers as he raised the soldiers back to life. None of us wasted any time, Naoto, Adachi and I taking guns and ripping our enemies to shreds with their own bullets while Aigis, Yukari and Mitsuru hacked with their blades, Elizabeth slamming her tome into heads to clear a path so she could cast.

"GEDDEM OVERBOARD!" Adachi shouted, elbowing a gun upwards as he rammed the butt of his own rifle into a soldier's jawbone, firing on another. We walked right into this one, literally stood in the midst of our enemies and assumed we were safe.

When we heard the roar behind us, and saw the coming wave, we knew we were anything but.

Mitsuru leapt, dragging rapiers through demon flesh as she charged towards the oncoming wave, drawing her Evoker. "THIS ENDS NOW!" She shouted, pulling the trigger multiple times to summon her personae repeatedly to freeze the oncoming water.

But it was warm. It was salty, it was too big.

Whatever caused this, it was too big.

_~ "GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" ~_

YES! "Fuuka, I have never been happier to hear your voice." I announced with a smile, gripping two demon heads and hurling them into the sea.

_~ "GET TO THE LAND! YOU CAN'T FIGHT THAT THING!" ~_

I looked at Typhon, then at the wave that Elizabeth had joined Mitsuru in attempting to freeze.

I moved my point of vision closer to whatever caused that wave.

Oh hell no.

No.

Nononononono.

"ABORT THE MISSION!" I shouted, grabbing Naoto and running towards Mitsuru, hoping Yukari, Aigis and Adachi caught on. "WE NEED A TV AND FAST!"

Then it screeched.

Deep enough that you might think it was thunder, except it wailed and pierced the ears like nails on a chalkboard.

Fire erupted from behind the wave, a crimson plume rising into the sky as Typhon laughed.

"Fuuka, what is that-" Mitsuru began, only to get pulled on the shoulder by me as I let Naoto down.

_ ~ "Three hundred kilometres long is what that thing is!" ~_ Fuuka shouted. _~ "I lost connection when it jumped over the Spanish-French border! The west half of Sardina is GONE!" ~_

Sardina was a large island between Spain and Italy.

"Leviathan..." I whispered, pulling on Mitsuru's shoulder. "We gotta MOVE!"

"Didn't you kill Sandaphalon a few years ago?" Adachi asked. "You can handle-"

"I had an army and a large planet to smack it with."I snapped, tugging on Mitsuru's shoulder one more time. "LET'S MOVE!"

She relented, turning away from the tide and following the rest of us inside the deck. Elizabeth launched a few Infinity barriers to break up the surf, but joined us in the retreat as we ran below, searching for a TV.

Are the rest of the passengers going to die?

Yes.

I can't do this.

Not now.

Not without orbital bombardment.

Swords only cut so deep.

We need Naoki for this one, at least.

The floor came up, the wall ahead of us went down.

Oh crap.

"DEEP BREATH!" I shouted, holding my mouth and nose as the water burst through the glass doors behind us.

I curled up in a ball, holding my head and bouncing off walls with my knees and shoulders.

yes open, Yukari.

I reached out and grabbed her, pulling her tight as I looked for the others.

Elizabeth surged past me, blood and bubbles streaming from her mouth. I grabbed her ankle with my free hand, exposing my head, but allowing Yukari to shove some dia into her.

We hit something, then curved out of the current and towards some stairs that had frozen over. We slid up (Down?) them, coming out into an air pocket.

Elizabeth coughed, and I dragged her and Yukari up to meet a drenched Mitsuru, Naoto and Adachi. Our connection to Fuuka's been cut again too.

"Aigis..?" I asked, drinking the air as the blonde in question broke out of the water. "Huzzah..."

"This boat is going down." Adachi said. "The passengers-"

"Are on their own." I interrupted, minds eye flashing through the young kids I saw getting ice cream earlier today. That honeymooning couple Mitsuru and I sunbathed next to yesterday.

Cutting them loose.

"Find us a TV." I ordered, getting up as Mitsuru closed the passage behind us. Only realizing now that we're standing on the wall, and that staircase was just around a corner that's now a ramp.

We need to get out of here before the Leviathan tears this thing in two.

"Not in this corridor." Adachi said, looking around. "The TV's in these cabins are tiny. There's no way we'd squeeze through something that tiny."

I clenched my fist. "Where else?"

"Here." Nat announced, pointing at a dimly lit map of the ship. "There are flat screens here and here on each floor, but at these locations they would have been crushed by the water pressure."

"That's twenty four in total." Mitsuru noted. "What about the theatre?"

There was a cinema towards the back of the ship, yes. We could make it.

The ship would be filled with aquatic shadows and demonata, but we could make it.

We were wet, weaponless, and had half an hour before this ship would be filled with water and these teeth would become corpses.

We're leaving them behind.

Minato could figure something out.

I'm not that psychotic.

"We'll take the Cinema." I decided. "Aigis, Elizabeth, get up here and memorise the route in case we get separated. We'll split into two groups-"

The ship lurched left, starboard? I don't know, but we were rolling. I heard the cranking from all around.

"Is it coiling around us?" Yukari asked.

"No, it's too big for that." I told her. "Leviathan's a mile wide, three hundred long. Ship isn't even half a mile in length. That was just a love tap."

Water splashed, and an ink-black octopus wearing a Hierophant mask burst from the water.

"And we're leaving." Adachi announced, watching a few dozen of its mates crawl out of the water.

* * *

-}+{-

* * *

DELAYS AND TIME SKIPS AND LACK OF MOTIVATIONS BATMAN!

Yeah, I suck. I blame Fire Emblem. And Skyrim. And Metal Gear Solid. And all other things to place the blame firmly away from me.

At Uni now, studying Psychology and Crime. I can't promise a decent update schedule, but I'll post something occasionally.

Once I play Pokemon Y though, Pokegeass will take off like you won't believe though. I hope to promise that much.

Next chapter will come when I figure it out.


End file.
